It was a Wednesday to remember for Pat Critchley, which ended with his IT Carlow side reaching their maiden Sigerson Cup final.
The Laois hurling legend had earlier overseen Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise's success in the under-19 National Schools Basketball Final at the National Arena before travelling to Iniskeen to watch his Carlow students overcome Letterkenny IT by 2-9 to 1-9 in the Sigerson semis.
IT Carlow followed up their opening-round victory away to Tralee by knocking out holders UCC in the quarter-finals and Critchley says they've enjoyed their 'giant-killer' run to the decider.
"We'll probably be underdogs again," the former All-Star hurler told HE GAA.
"We were underdogs for the first two games and will be underdogs again next Wednesday with DCU.
"But it's fantastic to be there and to be preparing for it. There's a great buzz around the college, a great buzz with the lads and we're really looking forward to it.
22 January 2020; Scoil Chríost Rí, Portlaoise coach Pat Critchley during the Basketball Ireland U19 A Girls Schools Cup Final match between Our Lady of Mercy, Waterford and Scoil Chríost Rí, Portlaoise at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile"We're there now and we're going to give it a right good crack."
"I'm delighted for the lads. They're a great bunch and we're having a great run of it,"
"They have great spirit about them, great character about them. We were four points up when that goal went in but they just keep going to the final whistle and we just about got over the line.
"We played some super football to get to tonight and I think we can still play better than we did tonight."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
