meath v kildare 7 feb @7pm

Am I right in saying last nights game did not produce a single save from either keeper? Closest I can remember us coming was when O'Neill took a punched point when Doyle (I think) was screaming for it on the edge on the square. And when we had a good move through the middle with me over and Cribbin sleep-walked into a tackle. I don't remember then creating any real goal chance although they could have done if they'd realised how weak we were through the middle.

Like I say you'd despair at the game when two of the traditionally strong counties in Leinster can't fashion a single attempt on goal

lilly-exile wrote:

going to try and remain positive (feckin hard after last few weeks!!) but our problem is still midfield area being too slow. im going to include the half forward line in this group too. chalky, leper, paidi and flats slow things down too much. if we're going to insist on playing the way we are then we need these four being replaced by the likes of the cribbins, dan Flynn etc. also think the daryel Obrien experiment isn't working properly. don't know why murno isn't in there instead of him. Obrien reads the game and gives it his all but murno does all this and has the extra bit of gas too. if I was manager I would probably go with something along the lines of:

                    donnellan
fitzy               Kelly        Ollie
                    murno
Bolton            fergal c    doyle
       moolick    dan Flynn
  cribbin (either of) fionn
                Kelly
      mullhall     podge

still gives u o'grady, flats, leper, tomas, paidi, chalky etc on the bench.

How any one could contemplate leaving ONeill on the bench is beyond me. One of the very few leaders we have and generally does the right things at the right time. We are crying out for leadership - wouldn't drop him in a million years. I would supplement Flynn and Moolick with Paidi operating around that area.

Definitely wouldn't leave O'Grady off the starting 15 at the moment. He was one of the few that played well last night.

I don't understand posters saying there was only a few to perform well last night. Every defender pretty much got the better of their men. There was good football played they just gave the ball away and missed vital scores

Ah I think we were poor Meath were just shite. What killed us was breaking out of defence looking up and no options whatsoever as Podge was the only one up front so we handpassed it around without going anywhere and then loosing it and then they broke and were more clinical that us...

the county broad who hired jason should take some blame for mess we are in

While I was happy to see Ryan take over from McGeeney, I'll have to hold my hands ups and reluctantly agree with the Geezerettes on here. Ryan has to go, but he won't until the end of the year, unless he walks.

Listening to Dermot Earley on League Sunday just now gave the impression of a man who does not rate the current manager. I think Ryan has lost the dressing room, they looked like a team that did not want to put the body on the line for their manager. The strange timing of Johnny Doyle's retirement proves this further. These are two of the best footballers to ever come out of Kildare.

We have Darroch Mullhall, a player who was shooting the lights out up until his illness last year now operating between the two 45s. Fionn Dowling kicked 0-4 from play last Sunday, he's doing the same. Fogarty was put in a hopeless situation last night, the few times he won clean ball he was surrounded by three or four Meath men. What's he supposed to do? He's not going to take on players with his lightening pace. He doesn't have any.

We were a defensive shambles last year. Even Ryan spotted this, he is now over-compensating by funnelling back every man, woman and child in a white jersey behind the ball. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. We just don't have the pace to break at speed. It's just not there. Midfield is a wash out, O'Neill tried hard but he is not a midfielder at this level. Moolick can't come back quick enough.

Losing in that manner against one of our great rivals is hard to stomach, maybe even more so than the almighty collapse against Down.

Hard to know where Kildare are going but where ever it is it's no closer to silverware.

One thing that does need happen is to hand Eoin Doyle the captaincy.

Taibi wrote:

One thing that does need happen is to hand Eoin Doyle the captaincy.

Just logged on to write that. Leper in all fairness to him is not a natural leader on the pitch. The lads need somebody on the pitch to look to and Eoin Doyle is that man, hard as nails, no pussy footing about with him.

To me and i would like to see the view on this, we are obviously becoming a soft touch and have been for the last 3 years in my opinion (including 2 years under KMcG), i will throw this out there, Kildare are picking players including those coming into and from the underage setup based on physical strength, BMI, dedication to diets, body fat ratio, muscle content etc. etc. etc. (Most of these type of guys are shapers and are more interested in flexing the muscles in the mirrors and looking good along with the semi celebrity lifestyle that comes with it) -now i understand not all.

To me most of the players that started the other night won't shine in the league or championship.

Are we forgetting about the core football skills??

kildare never left the dressing room for the second half were out ran out played all over the place meath just sat back and hit kildare on the break with serious pace the biggest single difference was when meath hit long balls into forward line meaths forwards won the ball it stuck no dropping it and kildare way to slow moving ball

lack of pace from 8 to 15 is really killing us big time at the moment, along with no natural midfielders. so were never going to soak up pressure and break upfield at speed unless ollie makes a burst, which often happens and he ends up either passing it back or losing it because our only forward is been marked by 3 defenders. moolick and smith so badly missed along with conways strength and boltons goal scoring ability from defence. we badly need an out an out high fielder to compliment moolicks engine around the middle. dont think theres one in the county though which is why a lot of people want oconnor to be given a chance there. so until some of the above happens, were going to struggle.its that simple!

Lot of people wondering if TOC is an option at midfield, maybe not to start but might give us an easier passage out of defense. We are far to slow moving the ball forward at the moment. Has he ever played there much for Clane?
Drastic action might be needed until we can find midfielders who can field a high ball occassionly.

The Meath Midfield pairing are also their U21 Pairing.. I was chatting to a Fella from Meath who told Me they had 11 U21s on their Senior Panel, to our 2... My point, either We dont have them, or were reluctant to bting them trough ??

The debate on whether Thomas is a Midfielder is interesting.. Personally I dont believe He has the engine for it.. and tbh unless Someone like Daroch is gonna play of His shoulder, its a waste of time playing Him at Full Forward.. The Chap just dosent kick Points.

Saw this on Twitter Its some addmission

Cian Ward @wardcian

Crucial win for Meath tonight. Huge amount of grit shown. Thanks to the ref too for all the home town decisions!!! They were needed!!!

Ref will hardly appreciate such honesty !!!!!

Only saw a bit on TV,,,,, corner back twice lost possession way out the field and those 2 turnovers brought Meath back into the game,,,,

there is one thing for sure kildare rarely if ever get the rub of the green from refs

I think a problen we have is that our defenders while great at defending arent great at kicking the ball for example 2 brilliant man markers ollie and doyle do they ever use the foot? They run and handpass sideways its slow and the opposition regroups counter attack is gone obrien can play ball but will he be there come summer i doubt it. Just saying being a defender isnt all about keeping your marker quiet

Tbf with everyone back and only Podge up front there is no one to kick the ball into.

kelf wrote:

Saw this on Twitter  Its some addmission

Cian Ward @wardcian

Crucial win for Meath tonight. Huge amount of grit shown. Thanks to the ref too for all the home town decisions!!! They were needed!!!

Ref will hardly appreciate such honesty !!!!!

Only saw a bit on TV,,,,,  corner back twice lost possession way out the field and those 2 turnovers brought Meath back into the game,,,,

I'd say their was just a smidgen of Sarcasm in that tweet. One thing that didn't beat us Saturday night was the Referee.

SeamusMurphy wrote:

The Meath Midfield pairing are also their U21 Pairing.. I was chatting to a Fella from Meath who told Me they had 11 U21s on their Senior Panel, to our 2... My point, either We dont have them, or were reluctant to bting them trough ??

Jesus we played 10 of them two years ago, giving championship debuts to eight and the manager got the sack!

Do we need more pace up front?

SeamusMurphy wrote:

The debate on whether Thomas is a Midfielder is interesting.. Personally I dont believe He has the engine for it.. and tbh unless Someone like Daroch is gonna play of His shoulder, its a waste of time playing Him at Full Forward.. The Chap just dosent kick Points.

Agree with this. I'm a huge fan and I would wager that he has had the assist for more scores than most other Kildare players in the last four years or so. But if isolated, he's not the man. They have been trying to get him to commit the full-back more, to take him on and have a few shots but he's not good at it and he knows it, and that just affects his confidence. And with so many pulled back, teams can double-mark, as Dublin always do (and then people say Ross O'Carroll has his number, even though he has never marked him one-on-one). If Tomás plays, he has to have people running at the correct angles (too many Kildare players run past or outside, they don't time hitting the inside shoulder). Well, he has to have them around him first, but then making the right runs to get the best out of him. Would be inclined to agree that if I wanted goals out of those, but even points, it would be Darroch, freeing him from the more mundane duties that don't come so naturally to him in the process.

So if this style of play continues, it will need to be Podge and Fionn, which has been the way the last couple of weeks, with the other heading out around the middle. I'd still have Darroch closer. Maybe they want him deeper to have somebody with a kick-pass in them to be able to hit the inside man quickly but you need finishers inside.

Westside wrote:

Do we need more pace up front?

Definitely would be a help. And also deeper to facilitate the counter-attack, which is vital when you defend deep and in numbers.

Ogie wrote:

SeamusMurphy wrote:

The Meath Midfield pairing are also their U21 Pairing.. I was chatting to a Fella from Meath who told Me they had 11 U21s on their Senior Panel, to our 2... My point, either We dont have them, or were reluctant to bting them trough ??

Jesus we played 10 of them two years ago, giving championship debuts to eight and the manager got the sack!

Does that mean We shouldnt bring anymore trough, if there good enough ??

Westside wrote:

Do we need more pace up front?

Definitely in the half-forward line, if we are going to keep playing on the counter attack. I don't think Flats, Niall Kelly and Leper are really suited to playing this way. Pacy players like the Cribbins, Dan Flynn and Cathal McNally would be more suited, in my opinion.