Kildare v Roscommon

Goals win games. Ros had 2 similar quality forward moves for each. We needed to get a goal in first half when on top. Peno should have been a free I thought. Wasnt too many protests from our lads which I think could have swayed the ref as he checked with umpires to see if it was inside. Regardless we did lose our way in the second half when game was in melting pot. Nowhere near level for Division 1 anyway - all about getting 2 wins now.

Heart. Character. Guts. Calmness under pressure. Leadership. Game management.

We’ve failed at all of the above. This team is coming to an end. The U20s who have been integrated haven’t progressed. Perhaps they had their day too?
The older lads don’t have the wherewithal to address any of their deficiencies. What must Jack O’Connor be thinking now?

We’ve all blamed previous managements. I certainly have. It’s the players that are wrong.

Very disheartening. We just don’t have the players. The worrying thing is how unskilled our players are compared to other teams.

A lot of people going to come on here over next few hours and days calling for JOC head etc. to me managers will come and go but out biggest problem in Kildare at the moment which was shown up on Fri night and again today and over and over is that we have no leaders (apart from Feely) I look at this group of players and I don’t see any leaders, no talismen and definitely nobody that will put fear into any opposition and they will just go hiding and looking for excuses when the going gets tough.
If anyone on here was ever involved in managing or leading a team will see this a mile away, I wouldn’t like to go into battle with the majority of these lads.
I’ve said it before most of them players will not put any fear in a decent senior club player and the majority of this team have underachieved with their clubs never mind their county.
There is a lot of work to do here and we need to get back to basics of honesty and hard work to which there is no substitute for ....

I'm going to be as objective as I can. I thought we did ok overall. First half was decent, poor start but pushed on and scored seven on the spin. They worked hard and there was plenty of urgency. The ball was moved well and unlike previous games there was support runners.
They kept Roscommon to just 5 points which is a very good halfs work.

Unfortunately, as the game wore on the fitness levels were exposed and the as certain players got tired the customary mistakes appeared as well as the soft center.

Two big turning points for me when the game was in the melting pot. As has been mentioned the free kick from Hyland which he inexplicably ballooned in the air after we had worked hard to retrieve possession was disastrous. If I recall their first goal came directly from that.

The second was a Cribbin pass into Jimmy Hyland. Another ballooned effort into a small corner forward after good work from our backs to get the ball back. Roscommon moved up field and scored a point. That was 1-1 off bad passes at a crucial time.

We are in a dogfight now as regards relegation. A gap has opened up of three points to the next team and we have tough games to come. Everything has to be given to get a couple of wins to see us safe. Forget about the summer, forget about the Leinster Championship, these next few weeks could define us for the next three or four years.

Very disappointing result but I thought it was an improved performance by us. The 2 goals were obviously a killer and we never looked like scoring one ourselves. We are really up against it now and need to win next week in Portlaoise.

For me, the positives were:
- Our tackling was better, we used the body in the tackle more. Obviously a lot more room for improvement.
- Our work rate was better at times. Especially at the end of the first half when we hemmed them in and got a few scored. Again - needs more improvement.
- Some nice scores from play. Particularly from Dan Flynn and Paddy Brophy.

The negatives:
- The slow start to the match. 4 points down in as many minutes.
- Too slow to make changes. The young corner back was struggling and should have been taken off earlier. Niall Kelly did well at times but looked to be tiring and could have been taken off earlier.
- Our use of the ball was shocking at times. Particularly David Hyland’s sideline, Paul Cribbin’s attempted pass to Jimmy Hyland and a kick out that seemed to be directed at Niall Kelly.
- Dan Flynn played well but he was very far out the pitch at times so we had no goal threat. We should have played him inside more as he is our main goal threat.
- Roscommon’s 2 goals came from hard runs off the shoulder. We are not good at stopping those running moves and we don’t have much of a running game ourselves. It means we are easier to defend against and don’t get as many “handy” frees or scores.

With the change of manager, what I most hoped for was a change in mentality and attitude. So far this hasn’t happened. We’re flogging a dead horse with some of these lads.

They don’t have “the right stuff”. As Bill Belichick says about his players “just do your job”.

Just mark your man! Just tackle him! Just kick the ball out correctly! Just complete a simple pass! Just take the responsibility to take a shot! Just track back!

Just do your job!

€100 for a breakfast with Jack anyone ???

2 things I've noticed today:

1. It wasn't all Cian O'Neills fault.

2. For the penalty incident, when the referee consulted the umpires, one of them must have been 16 years of age at best, surely there must be a minimum age limit on this.

"did ok overall" "improved performance"

We lost to a Roscommon team minus 6 or 7 regulars in our own back yard. Fermanagh even manged to beat this lot. Laois took a point off them away.

Not bad footballers by any means but they sure are gutless, spineless and weak. Not a leader on the pitch to be seen. As a team, they have the mental fortitude of a mouse. An embarassment.

Lads laughing at Laois not so long ago, ground out another win today. Looks like we have the wrong Kerry man. The expensive one. He deserves a year but it doesn't bode well. Depressing.

Like a work a work of literature, this team’s fatal flaw was there from the beginning, but I never fully wanted to believe it. Ten years ago as minors, they twice defeated a very good Dublin team, then ballsed it up against Longford.

As U21s, they finally won Leinster, then kicked it away v Galway. It’s always been solid achievement followed by catastrophe. I listened to Peter McConnon’s analysis today, he thought there was an improvement. Personally I didn’t see it. After a poor start, we got ourselves in a good position at 11 at 9. Then of course we go to sleep & let them walk through for a goal, followed by another disintegration. The usual.

Given how diabolical the team’s performances were under Jason Ryan & now Jack O’Connor, Cian O’Neill’s achievements - successive promotions to Div 1, a Leinster final, Newbridge & Nowhere and Super 8s - now make him look like a miracle worker.

Outside of Micko & Geezer probably our best manager of past 30 years!!

We have to be honest with ourselves - given our underage, schools & club record over past decade, not to mention the natural advantages we have as our county in terms of population & location, our senior performances are pathetic. Mentally flaky & tactically weak.

We are not even on the periphery of the top teams, we are getting beaten by Fermanagh + under strength Clare & Roscommon teams. If I was on the county board I’d be furious & demanding answers but we don’t have that culture in Kildare unfortunately. We much prefer the apathetic shrug.

I don't think any of these players go out to loose .they are lacking in confidence and until they get some wins under there belt it's going to be hard to change one thing they have to get sorted out is that this game is played from the neck upwards I listened to the game today there seem to play better but the simple mistakes keep happening hopefully we get a win on Saturday

Like I say, just hope they can dig over next few games and save us from the drop.

Not sure if many noticed but reading the programme before start yesterday summed up a lot to me when asked best advise? Donie Smith responded with ‘all good forwards are greedy’ and our Kevin Flynn responds with ‘its nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice’... and true to form we were nice to the greedy Roscommon forwards!

The fact that Clare and Fermanagh still have to play each other could leave us in serious trouble.

What an extra special depressing Monday it is.
Don't think we have the Players Folks.. and worryingly I don't think there's any better options available.

Just have to accept that they're not as good as we hoped. Maybe they're scarred by so many defeats at underage levels when it looked like they could win AI's such as 2010 and2013. Even good minor sides later were badly exposed by Roscommon and Tipperary who didn't even go on to win the AI themselves.
All we can hope for now is to avoid relegation, Laois will relish the chance to put another nail in that coffin next week. Hard to believe we were hopeful of promotion just a few weeks ago .

Taibi wrote:

"did ok overall" "improved performance"

We lost to a Roscommon team minus 6 or 7 regulars in our own back yard. Fermanagh even manged to beat this lot. Laois took a point off them away.

Not bad footballers by any means but they sure are gutless, spineless and weak. Not a leader on the pitch to be seen. As a team, they have the mental fortitude of a mouse. An embarassment.

Lads laughing at Laois not so long ago, ground out another win today. Looks like we have the wrong Kerry man. The expensive one. He deserves a year but it doesn't bode well. Depressing.

I agree it's depressing and the weather matched my mood this morning. But I can only compare yesterday to the previous games and there was an improvement but that's not really saying much.

We are in a bad way, scarred horribly by years of bad defeat after bad defeat. The odd ray of sun breaking through but the clouds always return.
There are only two options I can see for how we proceed.
Stay with the status quo and hope they improve with time or rip it all up and start again.
That will mean drafting in 10 U20's and say we will accept what will be for a couple of years in the hope they come good and not get mentally scarred like the current group. Not sure which I'd choose.

If I was put in charge of Kildare today, number one priority is staying in Div 2 at all costs. Championship is then a free shot - we're not going to do anything significant but maybe we might get one or two encouraging performances.

Next season, I would start building a new side around the 2018 U20s, and gradually look to the generation after that as well, including last year's minor team.

The only players who paid their way on Sunday were Brophy, Feely and Dan Flynn, with flashes from Tyrrell and Niall Kelly. Everything else is up for grabs. Seriously, I'm tired of looking at these lads caving under pressure, they've had enough chances and they're not up to it.

Time to rip it up and start again.

Our kickout strategy is a disaster and that's one thing that's on management. Options 1, 2 and 3 are long to Feely. Lads I'm telling you, there was one kick from Donnellan to him on Sunday when we were under pressure, and as the kick was being lined up I could tell Feely was physically gone. Not surprising when he is expected to a box to box midfielder, scorer, fetcher and the team's de facto spiritual leader. I would have Aaron O'Neill from the start of this campaign, no question.

I thought Hyland was terrible, he's not a midfielder and I don't know why Moolick isn't playing - another failing by management.

If ain't a mess, it'll do til the mess get here.

Disappointing but as I predicted on the forum I could not see us beating them.
Maybe we are getting a little better but in all honesty we ARE NOT a division one team.
That's fairly obvious from what we see on the pitch.

Kickouts went awry again in the 2nd half . I counted at least 2 that were boomed high at an isolated Niall Kelly- smallest player on the pitch probably. 2 were overturned - one as we had a Maor on the pitch and another when Donellan when Donellan went too short. Was at least one more throw up, I think that may have been a free . That's a lot of possession being coughed up . You can add the hospital pass and hail mary mentioned above so not hard to see how we scored so little when it counted - we kept giving them the ball and to be fair they were quite comfortable with it . To be honest I wish we had hit Feely more as he was on top there for much of the game. Moolick could have come on to help out a bit.

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Our kickout strategy is a disaster and that's one thing that's on management. Options 1, 2 and 3 are long to Feely. Lads I'm telling you, there was one kick from Donnellan to him on Sunday when we were under pressure, and as the kick was being lined up I could tell Feely was physically gone. Not surprising when he is expected to a box to box midfielder, scorer, fetcher and the team's de facto spiritual leader. I would have Aaron O'Neill from the start of this campaign, no question.

I thought Hyland was terrible, he's not a midfielder and I don't know why Moolick isn't playing - another failing by management.

If ain't a mess, it'll do til the mess get here.

Kildare players are walking with their backs turned to Donnellan and also walking out like a snail for kick out . Plus need two midfielders that can catch a kick out at moment we only got feely

I don't want to get over-dramatic, but when I saw a kickout being landed on top of Niall Kelly – NIALL KELLY – at a crunch moment in the second half, something inside of me died.