GAELIC GAMES:CROKE PARK opened for the summer season yesterday to the vast indifference of the great unwashed. There were 21,707 paying customers in the big house to watch Wicklow make a little bit of history against Kildare and Meath make hay against Carlow.

As is often the case the undercard bout rose up to exceed the main event in terms of interest and quality. Wicklow and Kildare presented an intriguing clash of imported managers from either end of the generational scale.

Wicklow, under the tutelage of the nomadic and age-proof Mick O'Dwyer, went three games last summer with Louth before exiting Leinster in frustration.

Kildare, one of O'Dwyer's former sweethearts, are in the hands this year of Kieran McGeeney, a totemic figure of the Northern revolution and a one-man byword for motivation.

The 10 previous clashes between the counties had a depressing one-sidedness to them, the two points that separated the teams back in 2005 being the closest Wicklow had ever got to a success. Yesterday the Garden County looked much the better side, however, and with Tony Hannon punishing Kildare's tendency to concede easy frees and Paul Earls buzzing in the full-forward line, Wicklow at least looked as if they had come with a plan to adhere to.

The midfield of James Stafford and Tommy Walsh cleaned Kildare out and the sense of despair radiating from McGeeney could almost be felt in the stands as he watched established names struggle to make any impact on proceedings.

In the end Wicklow just circled the wagons, leaving two forwards up front and relying on the odd breakaway.

Kildare's inaccuracy and gormlessness up front did the rest.

For O'Dwyer this modest coup had been the entire point of the past winter and spring.

"To be honest," he said, exuding trademark enthusiasm, "I set my sights on the 18th of May. Championship is the only thing that matters to me and I set that out from the day I took over teams back in 1975. Championship is championship. That's what it's all about."

On a roll, he went on to point out the deficiencies in the layered structure of the football championship: "Isn't it ridiculous that if we had been beaten we wouldn't have had the back door? If Kildare had beaten us today they would have gone on. It just tells you the system is crazy.

"But we're going on from here and today two weeks we're looking forward to that and I think we'll have a good game with Laois."

That game against Laois, another old sweetheart he led to provincial glory, will tell a lot more about the progress in Wicklow.

For now this win was sufficient unto the day. Hannon, the lively wing forward, spoke of the new attitude Wicklow have towards Croke Park since their dramatic success in the Tommy Murphy Cup last summer. The competition provided the county with its first ever success at headquarters.

"That day was a monkey off our back so there was no real problem coming into today. We knew we could win in Croke Park and were confident in our ability. The players are confident in their own ability. We came up to play Louth last year, were confident in our ability that day - it was a game we thought we should have won - but we didn't get over the line. Two draws later we let it slip. The X-factor is the enthusiasm the man brings. It's infectious. He comes in for training and he loves it every night. The long summer nights training and everyone is delighted to be there. I suppose the surprise factor is well gone out of it but I guess you guys will write us off as massive underdogs again."

And for McGeeney, upstaged by the old master, there was just a dignified acceptance of the limitations of his side.

What went wrong?

"How long have you?" he said wearily. "Probably everything. It was a very frustrating day at the office. From start to finish we were poor. The only thing that looked familiar was that we struggled to get over 10 or 11 points."

If the day was disappointing for McGeeney it was disastrous for Carlow and their manager, Paul Bealin. Having nipped ahead of Meath with a point in the opening minute and then a little flurry of wides Carlow collapsed comprehensively and could only stand and gape as a half-strength Meath ran up a score of 1-25.

For their part Carlow scored four points in either half. Meath play Wexford in the next round.

Not a day for the scrapbooks, unless you live in Waterville and have eight All-Irelands on your managerial CV already.