Kildare v Clare

SeamusMurphy wrote:

And the two goals were massive scores.. I'm just a bit concerned we're running out of inside scoring forwards, especially if the goals don't come.

Oh I agree. I'm holding out hope that Chris Healy is available and that the team named is just a placeholder.

One interesting point for the weekend... I expect Gary Brennan to be back playing and I really thought he deserved an All Star last year. I mean what the hell does someone have to do... Goes to show the absolute contempt for the smaller counties.

Anyway, neither Feely nor anyone else could really get to grips with him last year. Obviously Feely has really found his form this season but Brennan is an absolute horse of a player.

Clare on their day are still a very tricky proposition. Form has been a bit patchier this year but they are well capable of causing us problems. Hopefully though we are as clinical and ruthless as we were in the last couple of games.

His was very poor in All Ireland QF V Kerry, outfielded by star and without possession couldn't contribute, and there went his chance of All Star

tpos wrote:

His was very poor in All Ireland QF V Kerry, outfielded by star and without possession couldn't contribute, and there went his chance of All Star

Which exposes the absolute stupidity of the All Star system

Dead right Ogie... Not to go on a rant - cue rant - but literally every player who has ever won an All Star has played at least one poor game that season.

The All Stars used to be a nice way of acknowledging outstanding players from smaller counties - you had Mickey Quinn from Leitrim and Kevin O'Brien from Wicklow for example winning well deserved awards in 1990. But now that's disappeared just like every other tiny bit of regard for the game's "lesser lights" (who as Colm O'Rourke always says are actually the real heroes of the association).

If I wanted to go down the "poor game" route, I could point out that Lee Keegan was anonymous before four brilliant displays at the end of the championship deservedly got him footballer of the year. However, that would total nonsense, just like the Brennan argument, so I wouldn't.

Really looking forward to this game with div 1 the prize for a win. The weather is looking good and a big crowd should make for a great occasion.
Very disappointing that McCormack and Flynn are missing the run in as they were really improving and the last few league matches would have brought them on a lot before the championship.
I thought Clare caused us a lot of problems in Conleths last year and are capable of doing so again. They finished the season a lot better than we did after that game last year.
Interesting reading the team from last year and the number of players who played and actually scored that are no longer on the panel. Hopefully we can put in a good performance and win with a bit of style.

Well done to team and management on promotion.. it certainly won't be easy up there, but this young team will keep maturing.
Be great now to go and beat Galway on their home turf next weekend.

Well done boys.. Love watching this team, seem to have learned lessons from the past. Roll on Salthill

Any word on why D Flynn was missing?

No Dan Flynn No Neil Flynn No Ben McCormack Feeley and Slattery black carded, 5 point lead turned into 1 behind in 5 mins. A lot going against but we kept picking ourselves up. I think we are starting to see Kildare reborn, the Ryan era confined to the past, mentail strength we have missed you. Well done Cian, selectors and of course the players.

Dan Flynn is out for 4-6 weeks hamstring injury

Just home and calming down with a cup of tea. Lord we made hard work of that. We had our usual play well for the first half followed by the customary mid game collapse, then dug it out in then end. But only by the skin of our teeth.

I thought a lot of our defending in the second half was appalling. No pressure on the man, allowing the runners to come through, poor decision making and a goal keeper who is brilliant one on one but has kittens when a high ball is sent his general direction.

Saying all that, to get promoted after losing everyone of our full forward line to an injury or what not is exceptional. The two Cribbins, Doyle and Feely until his black card were driving us on.

There is not much you can say, two promotions in a row both with a game to spare, a young hungry team, a lot of steel and backbone, injuries not harming us and a team that are very enjoyable to watch.

Well done to the manager and his selectors, the backroom staff and of course the players. A fantastic achievement.
I'm a proud lilywhite today.

I think that falls into the job done but far from perfect scenario, defensively we were opened up a few times, they hit the post and Donnellan also pulled off a very good save in the second half, no subs were made defensively either despite their ability to run through us easily, our strength in depth at the back may not be great.

Having said that we did show great character to fight back from 2 down to get the one point win.

The game in Salthill is a nothing game now and may be a game in which to have a look at lads who didn't get much game time through the league.

Listened in, sounded fun. In an odd way if taken in perspective it's the perfect way to get promoted as a) we go up and b) we know that there is so much improving to do when you think of what, with the utmost respect, the likes of Kerry, Dublin etc would and do do to the likes of Clare. Galway may be a dead-rubber technically but for me it's half a step up on what we played so far and half a step below Division One standard so will be interesting and I think relatively important. Not to mention building up a head of steam before summer. Hate the "not ready" for top flight by the way, that may turn out to be the case but the only way to become a top-tier team is playing the best regularly. Massive in terms of development.

PS a quick word on the hurlers, as won't get seen elsewhere on forum. Great campaign, basically a last second point against Carlow from a Division 3 (they've different names in hurling to keep the self-proclaimed guardians from feeling bad) final and a possible game against Laois or Kerry to make Division Two with the likes of Galway and Limerick.

All in all, across the board we wintered well.

Due to various circumstances over the year so far, today was my first game. Reading here and listening to the talk around the county, I expected more tbh and I can only judge that the average supporter is getting a bit carried away. There were positives but there were also a lot of negatives.

Negatives first: today was an incredibly lucky win against a poor team while playing particularly poorly. Clare are no great shakes at all and a better team would have beaten us. It was lucky because of the numerous Clare attempts hitting the woodwork, and the missed free at the end. I'd say we played poorly because of the awful passing, tackling and positioning.

Regarding the tackling, either the Clare man was able to run through the defence like a hot knife through butter or he was fouled, while the forwards contributed with plenty of fouling as well. I'm sure the yellow and black card count reflects this. Poor positioning by players both when we're in possession and when we're not meant that more often than not when we had a free other than in a scoring position, the taker had to kick backwards. And too many times you'd see a Kildare man bust a gut to break through a tackle or win possession and look up to see noone in passing distance. Of course this lead to an awful lot of terrible passing. A mitigating factor in all this is the tight pitch in St Conleth's. It does not suit our players and style of play at all.

There were other individual errors but I don't like to call out individual players. In certain positions we are not as strong as has been made out. Make no mistake, a better team than Clare would have taken advantage of our poor play.

On the positive side, I agree that the nature of the win shows a mental strength that has often been lacking in recent years. Kevin Feely is also a huge plus and Tommy Moolick isn't doing too bad either. When you win a majority of primary possession, you can afford a certain amount of the aforementioned mistakes against all bar the top 3/4 teams.

Bit harsh. Clare had their best best team out today and played very well in the 2nd half. 11 scores in first half against a packed defence was a good return. Our shooting was excellent in that period . 2nd half we were exposed a couple of times. Keeper made a great save at a crucial time. I expected a tough game and we got it. Well done on a very good campaign. Real progress made.

Congratulations to all the players , management and everyone involved .

Today was about winning and we showed character to do that having messed up a comfortable 5 point lead .

And I thought Clare were good , they kicked excellent points although the last missed free was poor. But still better than the rest of what division 2 offered .

We are a work in progress but God isn't it great!!!!

First and foremost, a great achievement to win back to back promotions following on from back to back relegations. A lot of counties would happily take our lot currently. We were poor today defensively and going from a 5 point lead at HT to being a point down was disappointing (happened against Derry too) but to the team's credit we battled back, went behind again but came out the right side at the end of the game (which we didn't do against Derry with the the sucker punch of a late goal). That takes a certain mental strength, something that wasn't as obvious in previous years. Clare are a decent team and play with a lot of confidence but we contributed today with 2 black and 4/5(?) yellow cards but they also scored a lot of fine scores from play but at times with not enough pressure on their players.

Kevin Feely continued where he left off last week with his free-taking today and was impressive in his general play and Eoin Doyle just does what he does every game - leading from the front.

This is the first game in the league in which we didn't score a goal and we didn't actually have any clear cut chances. Donnellan again showed his weakness from the high ball today but again he made a crucial save late in the game.

Interesting dilemma for Cian O'Neill now regarding next week. By the time of the Division 2 Final we will have played 4 weeks in a row. Does he give some guys a run out next week or go with the minimum rotation approach he's used up to now? I think today's 1 to 9 have started every game with one or two others (Conway certainly and possibly Niall Kelly). Galway will be a severe test particularly in their backyard and still needing a result to guarantee promotion. They have scored 5-15 and 3-15 in their last 2 games so we will need to be far better defensively than we were today. With the 2 Flynns now out, we have less options up front but having Ben McCormack back is a boost. However, they are nice problems to have whilst we quietly contemplate playing the Division One elite next season.

What's the chances of playing Dublin in St. Conleths next year??

Playing Dublin in Newbridge 30% chance

fone wrote:

Playing Dublin in Newbridge 30% chance

Don't even think it's that high fone!

Great to get promoted. We made hard work of it but then again played well against a defensive system. Mental strength and character is in a hell of a lot better state than it has been. This is a young developing team and needs time. When you take it, we lost our full forward line and still won. Feely going off I thought would finish us off but they dug deep and substitutions were crucial to us getting over the line. Good to see Ben Mac coming in - this lad is vital for our team's success.

On a more negative point, our defence was brutal. Tackling and blocking were almost non-existent. Clare looked like waltzing through at ease, and should have scored a few more goals. This I feel is still the huge problem with the team. Their corner forwards were good players, but after 13 scored his few unbelievable points from play we should have tightened up. Our Backs for a lot of the game gave Clare so much room. Our workrate over the field was lower than it has been. If Galway get the same chances that Clare got this week, they will punish us severely. Whilst we are up and running now, I would love us to go down and beat Galway but they will be hard to overcome down there, especially that they need at least one point. So the message for next week - tighten up in the backs lads!!!!

Good result overall, but a long way to go yet.

Full credit to the team for winning a game they looked likely to lose and for achieving promotion with a game to spare. However the loss of our full forward line has greatly blunted our scoring threat. Almost half our scores today came from frees including a few brilliant ones from the side line.
I wouldn't have fancied our chances of needing a win in Galway so hopefully Cian can now experiment a little.
I thought Paul Cribben was far too laid back at times and only showed what he can do near the end. We need him to play at that level for longer periods. Keith is not a defender and a lot of Clare attacks came down his side of the field. On the other side of the field Byrne had a fine game and looks a real addition to the defence this year. Moolick's lack of pace was exposed again, is he carrying an injury?
No wish to get personal but Dowling and McNally are nowhere near good enough at this level and I would prefer to see younger players getting a chance as they have some chance of improving with game time.
Well done on the win and the fighting spirit near the end but we may never get as lucky with the woodwork again as we did today!

Galway next week is a shot to nothing. I think they got a bit of finish line fever today, tightened up and went into their shells when they could see Div 1 on the horizon.

Next week all the pressure is on Galway. They need the point we don't. Whatever team Cian puts out they should make life as hard as possible and see how they react.

We can't lose either way, win and we could deny Galway promotion lose in a good game and Meath stay put.

Well done to all the players and management on securing promotion. Nice to be in this position now going into the final round.

Feely was great again. Could watch him kick points all day long. Silly moment for the black card but in one way I think it was a good chance for the others to step up when he went off then. Fergal Conway has been brilliant all year. He really has come on so much in the last few years. Thought Johnny Byrne was great today too. Full back line still worries me a bit but overall a good performance.

As others have said, hard to know what sort of team Cian O'Neill will put out next weekend but still looking forward to it. Well done to him and his management team. I know last years championship campaign was disappointing but two league promotions in a row is a great achievement. Hopefully it'll stand to us when the summer comes.

Well done lads. the future is bright