kildare v louth

well its louth on 8 june @ 2pm croke park

Thought Louth would win alright. Would have preferred WM as we always seem too good for them. Louth on the other hand have no fear of Kildare and will be confident they can do us again. Very unlucky not to win in our backyard last year.

And before anyone says it shows how low our standards have dropped I was also sh^tting bricks before the qualifier last year..

As predicted it's Louth. We never get anything easy against Louth.

I said earlier we might scrape through. Now I think they'll turn us over by 3/4 points.

All the better it's Louth, we need a tough game before Meath in the semi and we are guaranteed that now. I have no doubt we would have beaten Westmeath and learned very little from it like Offaly last year.
If we can improve our defense we have some forwards who can run up a winning score against most teams. Expectations are lower after the last 2 years which is no bad thing.

We'll beat Louth by 5+

Keep expectations low I say and hopefully we can build nicely into the championship! More determination to win from the lads. Louth are always a banana skin for us so wouldn't be taking them lightly. We never get over them easily - last year was an example of that; we got a luck break for the goal and then we kicked on. Anyhow, a tough battle against them would be far more beneficial to the team. Pity its not on in tullamore or portlaoise (not navan!!) as would be great atmosphere in either of those places! I suppose beggars can't be choosers! Roll on 8th June! Lilies Abú!!!

This will be a tough One no doubts, and indeed Louth will have no fear of playing us..
Hoping we can scrape trough, but I wont be risking any Euros.

Louth are a capable team on their day. Lennon and Maguire will take a bit of watching. I hope to see Ollie Lyons back to mark the latter with Peter Kelly probably picking up the former. Paddy Keenan will be their talisman as always and he will be a big test for the Kildare midfield. If we curb his influence on the game which we eventually managed after about 50 minutes last year then we should win again. Moolick's form is encouraging and has nailed down one of the midfield positions. The other position looks up for grabs due to Hurley's injury which will be a concern for the management. Hugh Lynch didn't quite convince when he got his chance in the latter stages of the league. Chalky will probably play in the half backs. I wasn't at either match but I did hear that Daryl Flynn played well against Clane and will be pushing hard to start. Is there any truth in the rumours that Feely has been called in to the panel?

Louth will be a big test for us alright. They always fancy their chances against us and have a very astute manager in Aidan O'Rourke.
I agree that keeping Paddy Keenan and Shane Lennon quiet will be key. Daryl Flynn and Peter Kelly did a good job last year and if both are fit, I think they should be given the same roles again. Derek Maguire and young Ryan Burns did well last night so hopefully we've tightened up a good bit defensively since the league or we could be in trouble.
I thought Tomas O'Connor totally changed the game for us last year when he came on and caused havoc in the Louth defence. It will be interesting to see if he is picked to start or brought on when defences are tiring.
I think someone said on another thread that Kevin Feely played some part in a challenge match against Tipp.

Think Louth win by three or four. Game under the belts has always made a big difference in Leinster, we are all over the place, Paddy Keenan can absolutely wipe out our midfield, Lennon and Maguire inside will give trouble to our currently awful defence but expect their half-forward line to cut through us too. Croke Park is a big pitch for a defence like ours who have zero confidence and zero cover.

I think its good that the game will be in Croke park and that it will suit us better than Newbridge, Drogheda or Navan, We have the more athletic players, Agree that Paddy Keenan may give them an advantage at midfield, but I think our overall running power in Croke park will give us the edge

God its gone back to the days where we're not confident at all of beating Louth. And if we do beat them it will be deemed a great result. How standards have dropped over the last year is crazy. Its pretty depressing really. The Crofton/Nolan years spring to mind.

Agree white stars! But jaysus a bit of positivism on here wouldn't go astray!! Come on t'fuck lads, have faith. No point in going in with a defeatist attitude before a ball is kicked!

The truth is we have a great chance of getting to a Leinster final this year. We're more than capable of beating Louth and then its more then likely Meath we'll be facing. And lets face it they're certainly no world beaters, we're capable of beating them aswell.

lilywhites on tour wrote:

Agree white stars! But jaysus a bit of positivism on here wouldn't go astray!! Come on t'fuck lads, have faith. No point in going in with a defeatist attitude before a ball is kicked!

You earn positivity. People just being realistic and giving opinions based on the muck served up over the last few months.

So say we do lose to Louth, which wouldn't be too much of a shock after how we've faired against them in our last two championship / qualifier meetings.

That'd be relegation in his first league campaign followed by defeat to Louth in a Leinster quarter.

Meaning Jason Ryan would have achieved in a matter of months what it took McGeeney three years to do.

Some going that to be fair...

lilywhites on tour wrote:

Agree white bridge! But jaysus a bit of positivism on here wouldn't go astray!! Come on t'fuck lads, have faith. No point in going in with a defeatist attitude before a ball is kicked!

White stars wrote:

The truth is we have a great chance of getting to a Leinster final this year. We're more than capable of beating Louth and then its more then likely Meath we'll be facing. And lets face it they're certainly no world beaters, we're capable of beating them aswell.

Don't be ridiculous lads.

It's not as if we've a guy who's managed to bring a bloody hurling county to an All Ireland semi and ran Dublin close in a Leinster final managing us. Or a lot of talented young players in our squad, or a few players on their way back from injury to help improve us.

No, no reason to be positive at all.

TommyKeegan wrote:

You earn positivity. People just being realistic and giving opinions based on the muck served up over the last few months.

That's a fair enough point Tommy but I don't seem recall anywhere near as much negativity towards McGeeney during any of the poor league campaigns we endured during his reign, particularly in 2010 when were close to being relegated to Division 3 before inevitably losing our first championship match to Louth.

Kildare v Dublin Leinster final 2014. Thats the way it will pan out this year.

Or we didn't earn positivity in 08, when we were relegated from Division 1 winning only one game i think. Losing to Wicklow in the first round of Leinster. Look what happened after that we regrouped and unexpectedly got to an All Ireland Quarter final. Where we pushed Cork all the way.

TommyKeegan wrote:

lilywhites on tour wrote:

Agree white stars! But jaysus a bit of positivism on here wouldn't go astray!! Come on t'fuck lads, have faith. No point in going in with a defeatist attitude before a ball is kicked!

You earn positivity. People just being realistic and giving opinions based on the muck served up over the last few months.

Well myself being one who was at all games so far (bar trip to derry), can understand why people would be disillusioned with the league collapse; all I am saying is that there is no point in being completely pessimistic about the championship, before we have even played! Looking at the group of players on the senior team, on any given day when playing to full potential there is no reason why we couldnt match even the best in the country. Yes the collapse against Tyrone in the league and the other subsequent defeats were horrible to have to endure, and yes relegation was certainly a disaster in the end. Had we held on against tyrone, we probably wouldnt have gone down anyhow (results depending)! All I am stating is that we are on the cusp of the championship and we should be looking forward to it instead of focusing on doom and gloom. They need our support more than ever while the chips are down.

Yea i wouldn't look to much into the league form. The truth is if we didn't fuck away a 5 point lead with a minute to go against Tyrone then we wouldn't have been relegated. Donegal got relegated last year as All Ireland champions and Mcguinness said it didn't bother him at all.

Well its kildare we're on about anything can happen!!! Always my attitude   Sure jaysus if memory serves me well, didn't we have a shite league in 2000 and ended up winning leinster!! Not saying that is going to happen might I add, however brilliant it would be!

Absolute blessing to play them in Croker, because they set up so negatively.
Biggest worry is of keeping Lennon quiet, he's capable of destroying us.
But we'll probably win. And for those who think being unsure of beating Louth is a step back, we were a little fortunate to beat them last year.

Kildare will win this one by about three or four points then on to meath.
Couple of challenge games going up see how they go

carburyman wrote:

Kildare will win this one by about three or four points then on to meath.
Couple of challenge games going up see how they go

Considering they lost to Tipperary and Antrim last week and Louth put in a good performance at the weekend i cant see how this match is a formality.