Alan Costello: Wicklow always believed they could beat Laois

Wicklow joint-manager Alan Costello says his squad always had belief that they could upset Laois in Sunday's Leinster SFC preliminary quarter final.

The Garden County went goal crazy at Aughrim to book a meeting with Meath next Sunday in the last eight.

Blessington's Kevin Quinn scored a hat-trick either side of the half-time break to help his side record a first victory over the O'Moore men in championship in 36 years.

"Within our group we had huge belief," said the Mayo native.

"We worked very hard over the last number of weeks putting a game plan in place, Gary Duffy and I. We're delighted it came through today, the lads worked extremely hard.

"They were focused, efficient and economic on the ball and we racked up a good score. We spoke about the history attached to this fixture, Wicklow against Laois, and we wanted to honour players that had gone before.

"We felt that restoring pride in the Wicklow jersey was very important to us and we're delighted with that today."

The match marked a third meeting between the counties this year. Laois had won the other two, while Wicklow had gone through managerial change in the middle of their Allianz League campaign.

"It was difficult for Laois to guard against complacency," Costello suggested.

"They had beaten us in the O'Byrne Cup and the league. We felt there was going to be pressure on them today and we went after that. There's a lot of pedigree in our team and we saw our forwards today playing some wonderful stuff.

"The work rate all around the field was a massive factor. Our defence was outstanding.

"We felt it was going to come down to goals today and we know Laois have guys that can register [goals]. We felt it was a case of who would get the goals, and the early ones at that, to