Kildare v longford minor football

So just heard the team news , all unchanged:
Kildare (MFC v Longford) - M Donnellan; M Konstatin, J Byrne, B Egan; M Duke, T Moolick, J Comerford; S Hurley, K Feely; L McGovern, P Cocoman, N Kelly; P Fogarty, P Cribben, F Dowling.
Best of luck Lads!!

Best of luck to the minors also....

Best of luck to the young lads tomorrow

Best of luck to the lads,I dont expect them not just to win this but Leinster. I dont want to jinx them though.

A few fellas said to me on Tuesday night that the game against Dublin was far better than any training session. I agree. Longford haven't played since before the leaving cert so hopefully we will hit the ground running this evening.

That aside, this team has looked very impressive. We have good players all over the field who I think should be able to beat most minor teams around. The psychological factor of beating Dublin comes into play also. Any Kildare team that beats Dublin gains a certain confidence.

Lads I hope the result someone just texted me is a wind-up but I don't think it is. Disaster. My heart bleeds for the players, that's too much to take.

longford 3 -8 kildare 0 -13 hard luck kildare

Horrible defending for the two final goals,threw it away. They were comfortable for most of the second half.

The main thing is that we can get most of these players into the senior team. There is a lot of potential in this team.

That was heartbreaking. As Kildare supporters we tend to have more disappointing days than not but tonight was absolutely shattering considering the hopes we had for this team. That was for us. Must have been terrible for the players themselves but I agree with MD’s post there, we will surely see a number of these lads make the senior team in the coming years. I’m sure they will all push on now have fine footballing careers.

Seán Hurley and Paul Cribben were huge losses. Take those two players out of a team at this level and it will be noticed. Having said that, we could have and should have won this game but it’s as simple as goals win games.

The efforts in the previous games came back to haunt them, they just couldn't pick it up when needed.

To start with your two best players missing was always going to be a struggle.

Think it's a couple of years to early to rush these lads into the Seniors. Let them mature in the U21's then we can benefit in the future.

Heartbreaking stuff as has been said though, Playing Tuesday then Saturday did not help one bit.

I am amazed at how placid people are on here about this defeat.

Refereeing standards have cost a very promising Kildare team progression in the Leinster championship. In the build up to the third Longfort goal their was a blatent throw ball occured no more than 3-4 yards from the goal line - which both Umpires and Ref chose to ignore. Throughout the game Kildare were penalised on 3 seperate occasions for throw-balls, Longford were not penalised once. Same with the Dublin game (Tuesday night) - 3 times penalised for throw ball, Dublin not penalised once.

But what really irks me is the fact that no injury time was played last night. 2 minutes was clearly announced yet as soon as the game went into injury - the ref blew.

flourman I agree the ref was poor but the unfortunate thing is we should still have won this game. In the last 5 minutes the players were just trying too hard to force things and it just didnt happen for them. With regard to the extra time when it was announced over the P.A. the 2 mins had already being played.
JME you are right, let these players mature at under 21 for a year or two before being talked of going senior. There are a lot of good players on this team and lets hope in a few years time we will see the best of them as I dont think we have yet.
Finally just want to say well done to the team. The 4 games against Dublin were some of the best games I have seeing for a long time. You showed pride in the jersey and gave it everything and that is all that can be asked of you.

JME wrote:

Think it's a couple of years to early to rush these lads into the Seniors. Let them mature in the U21's then we can benefit in the future.

Yes, I meant to say in the coming years. I've edited it now.

shoutitout wrote:

flourman I agree the ref was poor but the unfortunate thing is we should still have won this game. In the last 5 minutes the players were just trying too hard to force things and it just didnt happen for them. With regard to the extra time when it was announced over the P.A. the 2 mins had already being played.
JME you are right, let these players mature at under 21 for a year or two before being talked of going senior. There are a lot of good players on this team and lets hope in a few years time we will see the best of them as I dont think we have yet.
Finally just want to say well done to the team. The 4 games against Dublin were some of the best games I have seeing for a long time. You showed pride in the jersey and gave it everything and that is all that can be asked of you.

There had been two minutes injury time already played when they announced it so they actually played almost 3 minutes.

Please do not blame the referee again and again.He was fair.The simple fact is that we were beaten by a woeful team who Offaly beat in the Leinster championsip by 23 points.Even the Longford supporters were in a state of shock.

Our full back line was dreadful.Longford had one dangerous forward no 26 who should have been double marked.I have to question management here.Our no 5 kept throwing the ball ( 3 times last night ) and I do not know how many times he got away with it against Dublin.6 and 9 were brilliant last night.Some of their fielding was incredible.I hope that they are not mentally scarred after last night.Our half forward line was non-existent.13 and 15 were good but went hiding when we needed them.And as for the subs who came on in the forward line they never looked like scoring.

We have to be real about last night.This was one of the darkest evenings for Kildare football.I know we were missing our two best players but defeat was inexcusable.Offaly folk cannot believe this result.They have Leinster in the bag.I have never felt as sick leaving a ground.No excuses as we have ourselves to blame only. Sometimes it is heartbreaking to be a Kildare supporter.

Cilldara yes there was 3 mins extra time played

tomcruise wrote:

6 and 9 were brilliant last night.Some of their fielding was incredible.I hope that they are not mentally scarred after last night.

My heart goes out to Kevin Feely who caught great ball but couldn't be expected to keep it up without help for the full 60.

I do feel some of the blame has to rest with management (I know it's easy to blame the ref and manager but I think in this case it's justified). Watching Sean Hurley beg to be brought on for the last 15 minutes was awful to watch and then to be brought on 1 min into injury time was shocking.

As Tom said I hope the lads are not too mentally scarred after last night because they have given up a lot over the last few months with a lot of them probably letting their studies suffer just so they can suffer the heartbreak of last night. As the facebook page says "You can repeat the leaving but you can't repeat the minor championship". However, you can stick at it for the U21 championship in a year or 2.

i was just looking back at minor results in leinster so far and found this result offaly 2- 19 longford 0 -3 from frist round and they met on sunday in final

I would like to see Brian murphy moving on to the 21s manager now,bringin the same lads on that hes knows inside out.

Whats the minor team like next year does anyone know? do they lose many off this panel?

Think it was a case of the best team losing. Really felt for them. They played great football all year and to lose on Sunday was devestating to those young lads. I hope each and everyone of them will seriously have a go at progressing to u21 and senior.

Was gutted for them young lads on Sunday night. I think they got just a bit anxious and nervous over the last 10mins. Even allowing for the poor defence for the last 2 goals I still think, with cool heads we could have won it, but then they are only young lads and they have years of good football ahead of them yet. Looking forward to seeing most of them in the future.

Longford beat the Biffos in the final.

they won easy by score line longford 0 -14 offlay 0 -8