Wicklow 4-9 Antrim 1-10:New manager Mick O'Dwyer saw his Wicklow side take an impressive eight-point victory over Antrim in Aughrim yesterday .

Antrim were still very much in the hunt at half-time when they trailed by two points, 1-5 to 0-6, but then they were brushed aside by Wicklow, who had a terrific start to the second half.

Tommy Gill, returning to the Wicklow team after injury, delivered the first two killer blows to the Ulster side. The second half had just started when he drilled home his first goal and, from the kick out, Wicklow attacked again for Paul Earls to fed Gill who punched home his second goal.

Antrim now found themselves 3-5 to 0-6 in arrears in the space of a minute and chasing the game. And if that was not bad enough, more bad news was to follow 10 minutes later when Wicklow's Jacko Dalton drilled an unstoppable shot to the roof of the Antrim net to open up a 4-7 to 0-7 gap and the game was effectively gone from the visitors.

Although Chris Lynch pulled a goal back for Antrim and Wicklow were reduced to 14 men for the last 10 minutes when Dara Ó hAnnaidh picked up a second yellow card, there was no way back for the Ulster side.

WICKLOW: R Daniels; C Hyland, D Ó hAnnaidh, A Byrne; S Byrne, C Foley, L Glynn; J Stafford (0-1), B O'Donovan; J Slattery (0-1), K Byrne (1-1), JP Dalton (1-0); T Gill (2-2), P Earls (0-4), T Hannon. Subs: S Cushe for S Byrne, B Lennon for T Hannon.

ANTRIM: S McGreevy; C Lynch (1-0), C Brady, C McGoldrick; S McVeigh, G Bell, T Scullion; J Quinn, M McCann; P Doherty, K Niblock, A Gallagher (0-1); C Close, K Brady (0-1), P Cunningham (0-6, five frees). Subs: J Crozier (0-1) for S McVeigh, James Loughrey for T Scullion, C McGourty (0-1) for C Close, P Logan for K Niblock.

Referee: J Bannon (Longford).