KILDARE v DOWN: NFL Div 2 Sunday 1st Feb, Newbridge

Last week we restricted Dublin to one goal chance - I'm afraid it was two step backs today. The defending in the second half was shocking. Down walked through for their first goal and with the winning post in sight, we simply fell to pieces in extra time.

Next week is now a huge game. If we don't get a result in that, the season is in danger of going off the rails before it's even started.

Freddy Krueger, you are a clown. You'd want to go the doc and get that overactive knee reflex looked at.

What the fuck happened? Why did we take off Eoin Doyle and P Kelly with the game in the balance. Absolutely sick!!!

Can anyone tell me is Murnaghan injured since last week?

LillieLad wrote:

What the fuck happened? Why did we take off Eoin Doyle and P Kelly with the game in the balance. Absolutely sick!!!

manager lost plot

Hard one to take today but the better team won in my opinion.

Can't understand why our forwards are coming out so far. Similar to last week against the Dubs, there were times today when there was only one forward staying up front among 4 or 5 backs. It shouldn't be up to the full forward line to come out to midfield and win the ball.

The short kickouts killed us too. Is there no faith in our midfielders to catch a kickout or at least have a 50/50 chance?

Why take off Kelly, Doyle and Mulhall who were all doing well? It seems that there are players who will get taken off no matter how well they play and others will be left on no matter how bad they play.

Not too optimistic about our chances in Navan next weekend after that display but will go again and hope for a big improvement.

LillieLad wrote:

What the fuck happened? Why did we take off Eoin Doyle and P Kelly with the game in the balance. Absolutely sick!!!

Thought the same at the time but both are coming back from long injury absences as explained by Ryan on the radio afterwards. We still had players on the field who should have been able to hold into a 3 point lead in injury time. Unfortunately once again our players displayed a lack of killer instinct and intelligence. Big big defeat this. We were the only home team to lose in Div 2 and only have 2 more home games. Vital we win in Navan.

We should have been a lot further ahead going into injury time. Some of our players are too rash sometimes. We conceded some really silly frees for the second week in succession. Stupid tackles going in when Down players were going away from the goals out towards the wings or the endline. Those points kept them in with a shout.

The teams who are good at that blanket defence give away very few needless fouls. Our discipline is not at that level.

Having more men back is all well and good but there needs to be greater support for Fogarty when he wins the ball.

Fionn Dowling and Niall Kelly were the two positives for me.

Agree with Lily8 - thought we were very naive in the first half and were lucky to be ahead. Dowling was fantastic coming out the field so no issue there but why was Fogarty and Mulhall in particular doing the same? If anything it looked like Mulhall didn't want to have to compete for his own ball inside. But he loses the ball too much in tight confines around half forward and it left Podge isolated. Down we're far better than us in the first half and we had Donnellan to thank for our lead (unfortunately he let us down later on) while Kelly's goal came against the run of play. I couldn't figure out what our sweeper was doing in the first half as Laverty was able to get ball in space in front of Lyons at will and no one w as closing the gap.

We improved in the second half to a degree although their goal was shocking, showing up O'Brien for the lack of pace that will limit his impact while the rest of the defence went AWOL completely when Mooney beat O'Brien. But we lifted the heads and came back at them, with our forwards proving clinical for once. The penalty was the one blip from that perspective and it ultimately turned the match as we'd have been out of sight if Podge had scored.

I thought we'd lose when he missed that but was feeling more comfortable as we headed for injury time. Should have known better. What a nightmare for Donnellan - the goal has to be laid at his door and the lack of composure with the next kick out.

Easy to blame Ryan - and he must take some for the forward set up in the first half - but lads on the pitch making mistakes like those at the end (and the penalty miss) are hard to legislate for.

Yeah I think loading this one onto the manager is a bit simplistic. Even allowing for the missed penalty and the truly appalling first goal we gave away (how far did the player run unchallenged - 40 yards maybe?), the players had done well to get into a three-point lead and should have been able to protect it.

Unfortunately they just lost the head. Even when Down scored the equalising goal, we could still have won but we fell apart completely.

I fancy Meath to win next week - mind you I thought the same thing in 2012 and that win was ultimately the springboard to promotion. We really need some leaders to take control of these situations and cut out this BS, it's killing us.

Can someone explain why Down were allowed bring on a sub goalkeeper for the pen? In a black card situation you have to wait until the next break in play to replace the carded player - is there an exception for a goalkeeper in a penalty situation?

I thought the same about the 'keeper but yes I presume there is an exception if it's a keeper. I wouldn't be blaming the ref for us losing even if that was an error.

Mind you he made a weird call the one he collided with the Down player at the kick out. Surely should have been a hop ball rather than allowing them to kick it out again.

fionn dowling man of match for kildare, good to see niall kelly coming back to form also, match was touch and go all the way, The pace of the Down forwards always had our backs on edge, but the game swung on a saved penalty and a chance missed where we hit the cross bar, down the other end a mistake by the goal keeper, ball comes back off the cross bar and they finish it to the net to level the game. Panic for the next 2 mins and game was lost. We didn't get the rub of the green today, gutted for the lads, but character building stuff, lets see how we respond in Navan. I agree that we need to tidy up our tackling and we are lacking a commanding figure/cool head at the back, someone to snuff out dangerous situations.

I wonder if giving the job of following Laverty to Ollie backfired as we lost his counter attack runs. I can absolutely understand why he was asked to pick him up but in hindsight wud o Grady have worked better.
Ryan really had a melt down what is he keeping Kelly and Doyle for we had to get a win today 4 away games to come. O Brien really has to be a spare player why did we play (with reasonable success) with 7 defenders in a!l the other games and then change today.

Easy to say that Smokey but we don't know the state of fitness of the players and he intimated Kelly at least had a strain. Other than perhaps being there for the rebound when Donnellan spilled it, I'm not convinced they'd have made the difference. We still had a full complement of defenders on the pitch to deal with it but no one stood up. As a team out players really need to grow up. They're not playing under-21 any more.

smokey wrote:

I wonder if giving the job of following Laverty to Ollie backfired as we lost his counter attack runs. I can absolutely understand why he was asked to pick him up but in hindsight wud o Grady have worked better.
Ryan really had a melt down what is he keeping Kelly and Doyle for we had to get a win today 4 away games to come. O Brien really has to be a spare player why did we play (with reasonable success) with 7 defenders in a!l the other games and then change today.

I think we played with 6 permanent defenders and Flats in particular also dropping back. I suspect the idea was that Down play so defensive we needed players around the middle. O'Brien wasn't providing much cover in the first half in front of Laverty/Lyons but I thought he was better for much of the second half (despite being beaten all ends up for Mooney's goal).
Prefer to see Conway back in there next week.

Shades of the Tyrone match last year - very disappointing result

Tyrone all over again with the manager making sub's left right and center trying to run the clock down but only succeeding in causing confusion. There was an audible ripple of discontent when Eoin Doyle was replaced, I never heard that before to such a degree. Then Kelly was replaced soon after. There was a couple of minutes to go surely they could have stayed on the pitch until the end.

Donnellan had brainless couple of minutes, but there were a few players who should be looking at themselves tonight.
2-1 in a minute of football. I thought 2 goals last year was bad but to do it again is unforgivable.
Hardly a tackle put in all game, teams must love to play us. Why has the Manager not addressed this issue that has been there for two years?

As I pointed out earlier why play with an orthodox sweeper in the OByrne cup only to ditch it as soon as the important games come around. The manager is trying to be cute and failing miserably.  No coincidence we conceded our usual boat load of scores as soon as he tinkers with a system that was working.

Ryan no matter what anyone says here is on very thin ice now. If we end up in a relegation battle instead of pushing for promotion then he needs to be replaced.

It was a strange decision not to play with the 7 defenders today after playing that system in all the O'Byrne Cup games. Strange as well that Murnaghan was the man to lose out after playing so well in the last 2 weeks. I think O'Brien can only play as a sweeper - he was totally burned for their first goal.

Some of Mark Donnellan's kick-outs were excellent but the one he hit after the 2nd goal was never on. It looked like he panicked after making the mistake for the goal. Hopefully he'll learn from this.

Some of our defending in the first half was very poor. We had 13 men behind the ball, yet we didn't put any pressure on the Down player and Lyons was totally isolated on Laverty. Actually our tackling in general is poor compared to Down and Dublin last week. Down were able to turn our forwards over quite easily at times while a lot of our tackling was either weak or resulted in frees.

Fionn Dowling was excellent - 4 points from play and a lot of good work done further out the field. Eoin Doyle and Mick O'Grady also had good games at the back. It seems to be prearranged that Doyle and Peter Kelly won't play more than 60 minutes. It's hard for the supporters to see them coming off after being our best defenders but if it keeps them injury free, I suppose we have to accept it.

If Ryan wanted Doyle and Kelly off, they should have took a black card. Slow the game down and kill it off. Kildare are too nice and so naive in those situations. You can be sure Down would have racked up the black cards if the roles were reversed. Kildare are well known as being a soft touch and they showed it in abundance today.

O'Brien at CB looked all at sea when the pacy Down forwards ran at him, he is not an option for me as a starter. Fergal Conway's importance never looked so obvious. 3-13 is a huge score to be conceding in February on a heavy pitch.

Fionn Dowling was very good, never seen him work so hard and he kicked a few nice points too.

I wouldn't be so worried about Meath next weekend, a late goal put a bit a respect on the scoreline for them today. They were well beaten by all accounts. Laois and Westmeath are bankers as far as I'm concerned, they're two counties in disarray. Promotion is still there if it's wanted badly enough.

JohnnyC wrote:

It was a strange decision not to play with the 7 defenders today after playing that system in all the O'Byrne Cup games. Strange as well that Murnaghan was the man to lose out after playing so well in the last 2 weeks. I think O'Brien can only play as a sweeper - he was totally burned for their first goal.

Some of Mark Donnellan's kick-outs were excellent but the one he hit after the 2nd goal was never on. It looked like he panicked after making the mistake for the goal. Hopefully he'll learn from this.

Some of our defending in the first half was very poor. We had 13 men behind the ball, yet we didn't put any pressure on the Down player and Lyons was totally isolated on Laverty. Actually our tackling in general is poor compared to Down and Dublin last week. Down were able to turn our forwards over quite easily at times while a lot of our tackling was either weak or resulted in frees.

Fionn Dowling was excellent - 4 points from play and a lot of good work done further out the field. Eoin Doyle and Mick O'Grady also had good games at the back. It seems to be prearranged that Doyle and Peter Kelly won't play more than 60 minutes. It's hard for the supporters to see them coming off after being our best defenders but if it keeps them injury free, I suppose we have to accept it.

Ryan said this after the game which is fine but it also helps deflect attention from him and his decision-making. Would keeping on both have been that harmful to their recovery? With only 3 home games, this was a big defeat and Navan next Saturday evening is likely now going to determine what we can achieve in Div 2 this season.

I'd guess Jason Ryan is following medical advice by taking them off early to avoid them getting injured again. They are both coming back from long term injuries so he's looking to make sure they are eased back into it and still playing in a few months time. I wouldn't criticise him on this one.

I know its the first round of the league, but today was a hugely important game, and it worries me greatly how quickly we collapsed. We were making hard work of a mediocre Down team, and could have been much further ahead. However we made silly mistakes when dominating possession. In a lot of instances, when we broke forward our forwards ran into dead ends far too easily. Now to be fair down's tackling and getting men back was good but I cant understand how the others could allow the ball carrier to be cornered on his own and not offer support. It happened to several players today and from scoring positions we were dispossessed easily.
We did contain them well enough up until the disaster at the end but it seems its a mental issue or something because it was the very same as Tyrone last year where we did not close out the game with ease. I hope defeats like this NEVER happen again because its so disheartening!!

One other issue is the fact that for a large portion of the game there was no use of the wings. Eoin doyle drove forward a few times, but there were a lot of occasions where nobody hung loose on either wing to give an option and we reverted to passing back.

It was not all negative (thank god!) as the return of Niall Kelly was great to see and he will gel well with more game time. Fionn Dowling had a great game, and he was leader like dropping way out the field to win primary possession. Leper gave it what he could and played well overall. I think Emmet Bolton is really needed though as a leader for the team in general as we are lacking in somebody driving from the back encouraging the others all over the field.

Tough day in the end, but a win in navan is more important than ever now!

jimmers wrote:

JohnnyC wrote:

It was a strange decision not to play with the 7 defenders today after playing that system in all the O'Byrne Cup games. Strange as well that Murnaghan was the man to lose out after playing so well in the last 2 weeks. I think O'Brien can only play as a sweeper - he was totally burned for their first goal.

Some of Mark Donnellan's kick-outs were excellent but the one he hit after the 2nd goal was never on. It looked like he panicked after making the mistake for the goal. Hopefully he'll learn from this.

Some of our defending in the first half was very poor. We had 13 men behind the ball, yet we didn't put any pressure on the Down player and Lyons was totally isolated on Laverty. Actually our tackling in general is poor compared to Down and Dublin last week. Down were able to turn our forwards over quite easily at times while a lot of our tackling was either weak or resulted in frees.

Fionn Dowling was excellent - 4 points from play and a lot of good work done further out the field. Eoin Doyle and Mick O'Grady also had good games at the back. It seems to be prearranged that Doyle and Peter Kelly won't play more than 60 minutes. It's hard for the supporters to see them coming off after being our best defenders but if it keeps them injury free, I suppose we have to accept it.

Ryan said this after the game which is fine but it also helps deflect attention from him and his decision-making. Would keeping on both have been that harmful to their recovery? With only 3 home games, this was a big defeat and Navan next Saturday evening is likely now going to determine what we can achieve in Div 2 this season.

He also said it after games they won in OBC. It's about the workload and those are the decisions that are made. Another five minutes could cause an injury. It might not either. Peter Kelly did reveal that he was cramping up when he came off. So clearly, it was a good call.

Terrible game to lose having applied the game-plan so well. Two individual errors were ultimately costly. The missed penalty and the McCarville goal.

Someone said Kildare only played six at the back. At times Kildare had 15 behind the ball! The most disappointing aspect of losing a game like that is you'll rarely see Kildare as clinical again, as you need to be when you play like that. Fionn and Podge were so solid when ball went in and on this day, finished. And they worked like dogs. McCorry was hugely impressed with the inside line. It's a big blow. It's one thing to lose in what is a dogfight of a division but to lose a game through your own fault is gutting and you could see that in Ryan and the players after.

If they don't win next Saturday, it's not curtains but it's very difficult and you're beginning to start looking to avoid the trapdoor. I saw enough today to think they should manage that anyway.

Fair enough call on Kelly if he was struggling but both Doyle and Mulhall had good 2nd half performances and it was strange to see them leaving when we were defending a 3 point lead.
We will find it difficult to win any game with the dearth of midfield options we have. For most of the game we had a half forward and a half back in midfield and neither are particularly good at fielding a high ball and we dont have many players to win the dirty ball on the ground.
On the positive side the full forward line hit 8 points from play and looked like the have a good future as all are fairly young. Niall Kelly looks like he could have a good year and we still have players to come back in.
There will be no easy games in this division but Galway and Down have got great starts and will be difficult to catch especially if the remaining teams start beating each other. Next Saturday is vital for our campaign now.