WICKLOW V KILDARE:THIS ISN'T new territory. Mick O'Dwyer bobbing up and down in the concrete surrounds of a stadium's dressingroom complex and explaining how the latest entry in football history was crafted.
It's not that Kildare people were complacent about playing their neighbours but the odds reflected a consensus: that a Division One side, albeit relegated, should beat one from Division Four.
"I saw it coming," said O'Dwyer, "but a lot of people around the country didn't see it coming. I suppose a fourth division team and we didn't play well in the league to be honest and fair about it, but I had set my sights on the 18th of May."
In over 30 years of preparing teams it's no secret O'Dwyer's pulse doesn't quicken until May and this year's trick has been to end Wicklow's wait for a championship win at the venue since it became Croke Park. "Well I suppose they've been coming here for 120 years," he said expansively, "and hadn't won a championship game here. We won the Murphy Cup here and I think that was the start of things to come. We have a nice team and a lot of good young players still to come into the team so they're going well and we're keeping our fingers crossed and if we can keep things on an even keel we have a chance."
Centre forward Leighton Glynn felt last year's run at the stadium - three matches without defeat - had equipped the team to forge yesterday's breakthrough.
"The little bit of experience last year with the three games against Louth and the Tommy Murphy Cup final as well. There were times we were leading by three or four points and hadn't got the experience to close the game out and we made sloppy mistakes. Three years ago against Kildare we were six points up and made a sloppy mistake and they got a goal and came back and beat us by two.
"We're playing a different type of football, moving it a bit quicker. This is a great boost for Wicklow football. I know it's only a first round but the last time we won a first round in Leinster was 2000, I think. We won a qualifier in 2002 and 2003. We've another game in two weeks but it's great to be still going."
Composure counted when having started well, Wicklow conceded the initiative to go in at half-time on level terms against a team that looked to have hardly played. According to Glynn the manager had remained upbeat. "He didn't press any panic buttons, just said we needed to get back to the way we were playing in the first 10-15 minutes. We probably started to play better in the second half. Tony (Hannon) missed a few frees in the first half but he was brilliant on the frees in the second. He just told us to get ourselves together."
For Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney the whole experience of his first championship match appeared to leave him - so often the warrior spirit when captaining Armagh here - baffled. "Look at the last 10 or 15 minutes: we had chances, three or four even to make a game of it but our decision making was very poor. So that's something I'm going to have to look at myself in terms of what I'm asking them to do. Either there's a misunderstanding or I'm not doing the right kind of training."
His counterpart was looking forward to the next day out, against another of his former counties, Laois. "It's not about former teams," he said. "We (when Kildare manager) beat Kerry here in '98 and that wasn't too nice for me but when I'm in charge of a team I get the team ready, I want to win and I don't give a damn who's at the other end."
Old world meets new.
