The pain of a Leinster SFC defeat to Kildare was all too evident in Wicklow manager Oisín McConville's post-match interview, with the former Armagh star lamenting one that got away and got them to a Tailteann Cup campaign.
A week after edging out Division 3 champions Westmeath at O'Moore Park, the Garden County returned to the venue and lost a dramatic encounter, with the Lilywhites prevailing on a 0-16 to 1-12 scoreline.
Jack Sargent fisted over a 75th-minute winning point as Kildare booked a place in a Leinster SFC semi-final, but only after a crazy injury time period when they almost let the game slip from their grasp.
Kildare led by four points with five minutes of normal time remaining, but Wicklow sub Oisin McGraynor's contribution of 1-01 drew the side's level.
It was McGraynor who slotted home the Wicklow penalty after Eoin Doyle's crude tackle on Kevin Quinn. The black card that followed reduced Kildare to 13 men, after the 30th-minute dismissal of Kevin Flynn.
"But we really can't ask for more from the players because we played as well as we've played since I've been over them.
"I know there are performances like that in them. I suppose the challenge for us is to make sure that we keep churning those out, but for today, it's obviously sickening.
"We've had a couple of chances for really big results, and I know we had one last week, but we need to put them back-to-back.
"People have been talking all week about 'scalps', but we need to get away from that sort of language because we want to try to do something of substance.
"We had the opportunity today and it just didn't work out for us.
"It was going according to plan. I felt we played really well against the stiff breeze in the first half.
"We didn't start well enough in the second half and we were five down. There's a lot of work that goes into pegging a team like Kildare back.
"That was the period I was most annoyed about. The rest of the game, I thought we competed really well and were on top of a lot of areas, and a lot of areas we maybe haven't been on top of, especially opposition kickouts.
"There were so many aspects to be happy about, but the big one is the result, and the scoreboard at the end.
"We're disappointed but we have to pick ourselves up and continue on."
McConville's opposite number Glenn Ryan had a broad smile on his face after his side came through a nail-biting finish to the game.
Ryan's charges lost all seven games they contested in the league and were relegated from Division 2.
"It's been a hard number of months in terms of results," Ryan admitted. "But it hasn't been hard in terms of trying to motivate these players, getting them working, and getting them training to do the things we want them to do to resolve some of the issues we've had on the pitch. If anything, they may be trying too hard.
"We knew it wasn't necessarily a football performance that was going to get us a win, but we're happy with the resolve and determination on their part, and that they've left the last number of months behind them to get over the line."
Wicklow's late rally unsettled the 1997 and 1998 All-Ireland winner, who admitted that his players handled the riveting finish better than he did.
"What was going through my head wasn't going through the players' heads, and that was probably feeling sorry for myself, feeling sorry for the players, that we didn't deserve this - 'don't tell me it’s happening again'.
"All those thoughts came in the space of a couple of seconds.
"But thankfully, the players weren't thinking the way I was, and that says an awful lot about them."
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