Kildare U20s

At times it felt like we're hanging on to Meath's coattails but the concentration from the defenders is like night and day from last week even if a couple are struggling. Midfield being able to keep going against a fairly mobile Meath pair will decide this.

Hard Luck to Kildare to went down to a good Meath side
Meath 2-11 (h/t 0-
Kildare 1-13 (h/t 0-9)

The 2 goals in quick succession without reply were the killer as Kildare went from 1 point up to 5 points down,but in fairness Kildare battle to final whistle. Some players looked slightly off the pace(warm day and aggressive Meath team), but lets not forget we only got the better of them in extra time as minors.
This game will stand to team in long term, all is not lost provided we beat Wicklow and turn up in quarter final V Offaly or Carlow (who beat Louth today). 2 more games should give management time to figure out form players and develop game plan .

Hard luck lads. Good to see them battle to the end but we've got to stop conceding goals. That's 6 in 2 games. Hopefully we can learn the lessons as there is good potential in this group.

Decision making and short hand passing let Kildare down again today. When will Kildare players learn to move with ball and not to hand pass to a player standing still? Backs losing ball in tackle caused goals in last 2 games. If you have McLoughlin and Hyland inside they are capable of winning 50:50 balls and early kicked delivery from out the field should be encouraged .Getting shooters on ball proved difficult in last 5 minutes and this needs to be worked on in training. Lots of learning from today,let's get behind this group and look forward to next game in Newbridge v Wicklow. I think Offaly(if they beat Louth), Carlow ,Westmeath(if they beat Longford) and Kildare(if they beat Wicklow) will be in quarter final ,not sure of draw.

cracking game of football. best tenner i spent in a long time.hopefully we dont take our eye off the ball wicklow.  like laois nearly did

Terrible first goal to give away off the turnover and some of the players struggled a little with the pace of the game but there was real improvement from the first game. I honestly feel there's more improvement in them than Meath. Winning 4 games in a month to win Leinster won't be straightforward but it can be done. Masterson is ploughing a lone furrow at midfield at times and a couple of the defensive positions need to be nailed down (Danny O Sullivan?), as well as O'Neill making a better effort at shotstopping, but if Hyland and McLoughlin stay fit there's a Leinster in them. Terrific game to watch even though we lost. In fairness Wicklow had a good minor team 2 years ago but had no self belief. Even though they are effectively out because their points difference is so bad, they'll give this match a real lash.

Exhibition of forward play from Jimmy Hyland today. Opposition wernt up to much but looks a nicely balanced team. We struggled in midfield though with very little pace in there ok today but I think it will cost this team at sometime. Was impressed by chap from ardclough maybe he could move in there (when was last footballer from the cloughs)

In fairness the 2nd quarter was good stuff regardless of the opposition. Can't make up my mind whether Masterson is getting slower or is just exhausted from being on the go non stop for 2 years. Unless Louth win tomorrow it looks like Carlow next week. At the risk of tempting fate after what happened our seniors, might be a last chance to try something at midfield before Dublin in the semi.

I’ve worried about Masterson and Marnell as a pair since minor days. I’d have someone like Shane O’Sullivan or Bambrick in there alongside Masterson.

Jimmy was excellent, some of the other forwards not so much.
2nd half subs made an impact, and management have a nice seletion headache.

Congrats to the lads. Some of the lax defending for the goal chances would put the heart across you but you can see them looking a lot more coherent. The fact that they have Dublin in Parnell Park isn't the worst thing in the world given the tightness of the pitch though the Dublin forwards are big enough. But they could really do with Brian McLoughlin being fit. Having this game rather than a week off was no harm. Darragh Ryan's improvement symptomatic of team's improvement overall.

great result yesterday lads, took goal chances well and made light work of it in the end, the subs that came on all did very well 2, I noticed another player absent from yesterday’s game along with Brian McLoughlin who was Tony Archibald, we’ll need him back for next day out any idea where he was?

Apparently we are playing Offaly in the semi finals after a draw made today. According to Leinster GAA on Twitter. Details TBC. Meath play Dublin in Navan Sat night. Offaly first named so we may be in Tullamore.

Jaysus Offaly in Tullamore instead. Not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing. Offaly are good. Difference between Offaly now and minor 2 years ago is having a good manager like Declan Kelly in charge.

Confirmed 7.30pm Friday night in Tullamore. That's going to be a battle but can't wait for it.

Was it this age group that had the row after the game with Offaly in Tullamore at minor level?

That was 2015 so hardly any Offaly player and only a few Kildare players involved next Friday. Cian Johnson the big name on their team but they have a very handy centre forward pulling the strings for them. Were awful v Laois in the Leinster minor semi 2 years ago but this under 20 team has a lot of changes from that minor team.

Checked and you’re right. Hyland, McLoughlin, Archbold were three involved on our side.

Colour me excited. Two very intriguing semi-finals... Might give some further indication as to whether there is actually any hope for Leinster football (today's result: Dublin's biggest ever Leinster final win).

Meath have upped their game at underage and with home advantage you'd imagine that will be one hell of a battle.

As for our game, I'd expect it to be very tough and our boys better be psychologically prepared for battle. Johnson is a quality forward and, like all Kildare teams, this side can be too easily opened up at times.

Fully expecting them to sew it into us and Offaly have had some notable underage victories against us this decade - U21 2012 & 2014 spring to mind (both absymal performances by two talented Kildare teams) - but hoping our lads up for the challenge.

Meath beat Dubs in Minor 2 years ago before losing to us in extra time in semi final.

Yeah and we definitely rode our luck in that match - Meath hit the crossbar with a penalty in last minute of normal time.

A shame we're missing Jack Robinson from that team, a special player, but swings and roundabouts etc.

They also beat Dubs to win U17 title last year, so they've definitely been doing the underage work which they hadn't been doing for a long time. Very interesting to see how it all plays out next weekend...

2.7 to 2.1 at half time. Bad 2nd goal to concede allowing a player to run through without a hand on him. When we go direct to McLoughlin we look really good but we resort to endless handpasses we get turned over.
Disappointed with Hyland he needs to up it big time to wrap this up.

Game was over after 10 minutes, I left after 40.

Offaly at nothing but we played some brilliant football at times. But obviously final will be huge step up etc etc.

Dempsey is some bit of stuff, ditto McLoughlin.

Well done team and management on a fine performance.

Leg two of this week's treble complete... On to the final showdown.

Come on Kildare!!

Who will we have in the final? Well done lads seems to be a good win, the only thing I would be worried about is were still conceding goals. Don't forget the hurlers were only half way there hopefully we can complete the quadruple

That first 10 minutes was as clinical as I've ever seen from a Kildare team. There has been serious improvement in this team in the space of a month. Yep the second goal was bad but it feels like Kildare football has gotten a serious shot of testosterone this week (and in case Paul Kimmage is reading this , I'm not suggesting our players are literally on drugs). We've gone from being Sonia O'Sullivan before the 96 olympic 5000m final to being Ben Johnson before the 88 olympic 100m final. Padraig Nash and Mark Barrett are just 2 playing at a level I would not have foreseen a month ago. Would be confident about next week regardless of who wins tomorrow.