National League Division 2

The most encouraging aspect of today's match from my point of view was the mentality of the players. There was a stage in the second half where I'm sure many of us thought we were going to witness another second half collapse which has become all to familiar in recent years but they hung in there and toughed it out. Hopefully this is the start of this team developing a mental toughness and hardiness because there is plenty of football in them. There have been games over the last few years where you could have questioned lads effort but not today.

Our defence is still very much a work in progress but there are signs of improvement. I'd say that was David Hyland's best ever performance at full back while it's great to have O'Grady available and Doyle and Keith Cribbin fully fit. I would have been skeptical about Keith's suitability to the half back line but he has put in two fine displays in the last 7 days.

Sounds like Keith Cribbin huge, took Collins out of game?

Really good performance today. Personally i was delighted to see Neil Flynn put in a big performance. i think he can become a top top forward in a few years.
All in all its been a great week to be a follower of Kildare GAA

Match report on a very fine Kildare performance.  

With A Rebel Yell...Kildare Conquer Cork

Had a go during the week and have to say the second half was Neil Flynn best performance in a senior game. I didn't think he was showing enough progress game on game to merit being an automatic pick and his free conversion rate didn't merit carrying him. Today however he showed a bit of improvement so he deserves to go the next day and hopefully we see that maintained and kept on the upward trajectory as the campaign goes on.

Ben Mc, is he the most exciting Kildare forward to watch since Johnny Mac?!?

Best performance in Newbridge for a while and great to put 2 good performances back to back. Really pleasing was the response to the disallowed goal. The players tore into tackles afterwards, as if to show they weren't going to let Cork, Cormac Reilly, Maurice Deegan or anything else stop them from winning. No hard luck stories today.

Good to see us push up on their kick-outs. The Cork goalie was a bit rattled and kicked a few bad ones. Our tackling has improved as well. Good to see us concede less frees and also win a few turnovers by crowding out the man in possession.

The backs were very good today especially David Hyland and Eoin Doyle. Kevin Feely was excellent in midfield and is starting to emerge as a real leader. Paul Cribbin showed great workrate and got a couple of great scores. We've got a goal threat in the full-forward line at last and good to see Neil Flynn chip in with a few scores at the end.

Cork were supposed to be one of the best teams in the division so we should take great confidence from the performance. Well done to all involved.

Great display lads today well done ✌️✌️✌️

Lads how good are Galway after seeing what kildare done with cork ?

white boy wrote:

Lads how good are Galway after seeing what kildare done  with cork ?

Good enough not to have lost to Kildare since the mid-80's at any level of football.

Hopefully we'll have promotion put to bed before Salthill

TommyKeegan wrote:

Sounds like Keith Cribbin huge, took Collins out of game?

Keith has been top class the last couple of weeks and Johnny Byrne stepped it up today as well. Different types of players but the half back line has a "grown up" look to it at the moment. Great to see Ollie Lyons carrying the game to the opposition these two weeks as well. He scares the living daylights out of the opposition when he goes on those runs of his. A real weapon in our armoury and he's usually unselfish enough to find a better placed colleague once he's created space.

white boy wrote:

Lads how good are Galway after seeing what kildare done  with cork ?

Using that rationale you could ask the same question of Derry - but it's all heresay.
If the lads treat each game as they have the first two, show the same attitude, commitment and hunger - good things will happen.

white boy wrote:

Lads how good are Galway after seeing what kildare done  with cork ?

Galway will have full strength panel for rest of league as Corofin players are available now . Derry no slaughneil players yesterday. Kildare will be green jerseys for Derry match

For two weeks running now i'm buzzing coming into work on a Monday. What an excellent start to the campaign. There was page after page of woe and despair after the disappointing OBC semi final but what a fantastic turnaround

If someone said before the league campaign that we would have a +16 points difference and hammered, yes hammered! Cork and Meath in our two openers we would have committed such a person to the asylum.

I know we have been here many many times before but the confidence these two weeks will have given the panel should not be over stated. They really pushed hard yesterday, flying into tackles to a man. There has been absolutely no lack of effort from anyone and its great to see, its all we can ask of them.

Personally im delighted to see a vast improvement in a couple of key areas. 1 Hand passing. Far cleaner, less turnovers etc. 2. Kick passing 3. Decision making. Granted there were some errors yesterday (understandable given the conditions), improvements in overall skill levels are noticeably.

From 1 - 15 we are seeing improvement. Eoin Doyle holds it all together in the middle but there is significant performance improvements from Kevin Feely, Paul and Keith Cribben to name but a few. You can see them urging each other on , its great to see.

Couple of other points before I finish this ramble. Ben McCormack. What a talent. The place was bzzing when he got the ball. Roli on the sideline, he was like a wasp throughout (compliment !) up and down the side, encouraging, planning, instructing. Great to see. Passion, we are seeing effort, hard hitting, commitment.

How brutal is the cork support ? Were there 10 there supporting. Fair play to the sombrero fella.

All in all a great start to the league and isn't it wonderful to be even considering promotion. Based on the 2 early games, we have nothing to fear in this division. Focus on beating a demoralised Derry and who knows where it can take us.

We have had more false dawns than Trump has had alternative facts so obviously don't want to get carried away but the last two weeks have given the sort of lift that the county team has been sadly missing. Well done all involved, lets see a few more faces up in Derry to support the lads.

Best league match in Conleths since the win over Mayo a few years ago and miles better than that awful Div 3 stuff last year. Thought we looked reasonably comfortabe throughout but was always dreading that 2nd half fade out of recent times.
The team is getting a settled look which is great to see. Thought Hyland finished very strongly and Lyons had his most productive game getting forward. The half back line has the potential to be the best we have had for some time.

Feely was superb especially in the first half but thought Moolick struggled but might have been carrying a knock.
The forward line looks really lively but we are not getting enough out of Dan Flynn who seems unsure where to play. Even so he could have finished with 2 goals with a little luck. Conway is a great workhorse but it was a pity that the final shot fell to him on a few occassions after we had sustained possessions near their goal. Really need to get Kelly or Cribben shooting in those positions.
All in all a fine performance which the supporters needed as much as the players!

its great stuff at the moment and now a few more collage lads back as well I thought this was going to be a slow burner of a league but now its brilliant to watch

Its great for the confidence for both the players and supporters over the last two weeks as some of the lads said there is a settle look to the team & panel witch is easier to work with. Hopefully the lads will bottle up this confidence for the next few weeks and see where that will take us.

We are building nicely. In fairness to Cian he said that it will take at least 3 years for us to reach our potential. The way it is looking, provided we keep producing solid minor teams we are going to be a serious force to be reckoned down the line. We as supporters need to give the lads our full support

We as supporters need to rein it in a small bit as well. Solid minors teams don't always produce good senior teams.

Its a great result in Div 2 in February. That's all it is.

Yeah i totally agree. Win lose or draw the next day out lets not forget the long term plan here

How cold was that in Newbridge yesterday?, it was more like a Siberian gulag than a football stadium, but that performance was heart-warming, great heart and fight in that team, a lot of youth with fire in the belly, lots of support running and speed of thought, it is a good sign that the players appear to be enjoying their football, I know it's only February and there will be days that wont always go to plan but hard not to be optimistic with that display.

It will certainly make the trip to Derry more appealing now.

No doubt there will be some bad days, but you would think Derry minus the Slughtneil crew would be given a fair rattle. Getting these early wins is such a boost and the team seem to be performing well as a whole.
Great to have some pace in the team and a young team feeling good about themselves means they can play to their potential, which doesn't always happen as we all know.
Staying in Division 2 is already looking a bit better and ideally post-U21 there will be more lads fully blooded. In fairness there have been a few years where lads have not had a good injury-free run so if they stay fit there will be a good scrap for places.

Eoin flats could back in panel soon

Flamingo wrote:

No doubt there will be some bad days, but you would think Derry minus the Slughtneil crew would be given a fair rattle. Getting these early wins is such a boost and the team seem to be performing well as a whole.
Great to have some pace in the team and a young team feeling good about themselves means they can play to their potential, which doesn't always happen as we all know.
Staying in Division 2 is already looking a bit better and ideally post-U21 there will be more lads fully blooded. In fairness there have been a few years where lads have not had a good injury-free run so if they stay fit there will be a good scrap for places.


 

Our record in Derry since 1980 (League and championship):

Played 11
Won 1
Drew 1
Lost 9

Other than a draw in the league in 1998 and that great championship win in 2010 we've a miserable record up there.

Owe them one (as we did Cork)

fone wrote:

Eoin flats could back in  panel soon

That's great news if true.