Longford’s prize for beating Offaly is a daunting date with perennial Leinster champions Dublin but Jack Sheedy has romantic notions of upsetting his old team.
After their comeback win in Tullamore last night, Sheedy, who starred for the Dubs in the 1990s, will lead the midlands side up to Croke Park at the end of the month to face the All-Ireland champions of 2011 and 2013.
Dublin will be overwhelming favourites but Sheedy told RTÉ Sport that they will travel to the capital with hopes of catching out Jim Gavin’s league champions.
“Nobody gives us a snowball’s chance in hell,” he said.
“To be fair, I suppose it’s justifiable but we still romanticise about football and we think that every day you’ve got a chance.
“If we work hard enough between now and two weeks’ time and work hard on the day and give an account of ourselves, well then that’s what we can ask for.
“There’s an awful lot less pressure on us to do it now, just to go out and perform but it’s a huge task and there’s no hiding from that.”
Longford beat Offaly in the regular league season by three points but were 13-point losers in the Division 4 final three weeks ago.
As a result they were underdogs going into the game and found themselves seven points down in the second half.
“Nobody gives us a snowball’s chance in hell" - Jack Sheedy
But a stirring comeback resulted in a 0-16 to 0-13 win and Sheedy reckons his side got what they deserved.
“It was very good, big performances from a lot of guys,” he said.
“The work rate was savage out there, the desire of the lads to give a performance was absolutely tremendous and you couldn’t ask anymore really.
“We worked so hard. It would have been terribly disappointing, having given a performance like that, not to have won but sometimes you don’t get the results.
“We did what we were supposed to do and what we had spoken about over the last couple of weeks and how we wanted to do things. That’s very satisfying.”
