Kildare v Clare

For the week that's in it ...don't ask me why but I'm expecting a ground-out win ...for Kildare that is.

PP have Kildare 1/2 (Boyles even more optimistic, go 2/5)

I can't remember us ever having a comfortable win over them and they even beat us in league final in 2016.

Malone and Tubridy are excellent forwards who always trouble our backline and Feely always struggles with Brennan.

Going to be a really tough game.

Bad value at those odds but i do think we'll get the win

Any word on anyone else being back for this game?

Assume P Kelly and Healy will be available.

Jeez this is a big game - Really feels like this round will determine what way we are looking for the remainder of the league - Win and its onwards and upwards - Lose and it will be a slog to try and stay in the division.

Best of luck lads

Not surprising the lack of comment on Clare game. The last performance seems to have the enthusiasm out of many of us. Hard to believe a team we ran up a huge score against last summer could restrict us to 6 pts and only 1 from play.
It seems nothing has been learned from Carlow game and the defense is as porous as ever.
Lose this and then face trips to Donegal and Meath with relegation a possibility.
I wouldn't mind losing out on promotion but relegation would be unacceptable. Huge game and a convincing win would energise the whole set up.
Hopefully see a few players back.

Big Game Lads, a lot riding 0n this. Hope the fuck we start well.Our last few Games, We were very slow to start 3p down in first 10minutes. We Need to Change that,scores on the board early. If we do that I think we'll win .

Hopefully the 2 weeks break has helped sort things out.. A win here is a must Folks.
Hopefully the support is decent as no doubt some of the faithful are losing patience.

believe thats the way it has to be with away to meath and donegal this is a must win i believe

SeamusMurphy wrote:

Hopefully the 2 weeks break has helped sort things out.. A win here is a must Folks.
Hopefully the support is decent as no doubt some of the faithful are losing patience.

faithful supporters are losing patience long before now

It’s pretty straightforward - O’Neill’s job is on the line. He’s three years in the position now & either he’s turned us into a Div 1 team or he hasn’t. If we don’t secure promotion, time to push off & let someone else have a go.

I’d actually be in favor of Glen Ryan taking over as interim manager for championship & appointing Davy Burke next year.

But let’s see how we go Sunday first. Imploring the players to empty themselves in this game. If we don’t get promoted it’s another wasted year for this team.

actually haunted i think that would be a stupid move either appoint full time or leave it as is to me its all about championship and survival in div 2 at worst

Paul Cribbin, Kevin Flynn, David Slattery, Conor Hartley, Chris Healy and Eoghan O'Flaherty all unavailable.

Peter Kelly and Paddy Brophy are expected to play some part.

Team v Clare

Donnellan, Dempsey, O'Grady, D Hyland, Gibbons, Doyle, P Kelly, Feely, Moolick, Brophy, Conway, K Cribben, N Flynn, McCormack, J Hyland

Good to see Moolick, Brophy and Kelly back . Interesting to see what Gibbons can bring to defense. Looking forward to game.

Hearing rumors O’Neill planning “Simeone-style” celebration if we win.

Back to 7 defenders -

Seems to be a lot of worried posts on this one, and having witnessed the Enniskillen debacle at first hand I can somewhat understand why, however its Clare - and I don't care what threat they may carry -it's still Clare, if this has us wringing our hands then we can forget about being anything other than mediocre, any team in division one or with aspirations of getting there would consider this as routine, is our self belief really that low?

Yes it’s Clare, and the fact we have picked 7 defenders says it all really ..

Half forward line has taken a hell of a battering with injuries. But hoping P Kelly & Brophy can show a bit of leadership on their return & give us a bit of extra impetus.

I’d imagine Dempsey will take Tubridy but I wonder if O’Grady might be a better option - might be physically imposing. Out the field, I honestly think Malone is a disaster waiting to happen us. He is exactly the kind of player we struggle against. When our sweeper drops he will be very adept at finding pockets of space & causing havoc. It’s the sort of tactical detail O’Neill doesn’t excel at.

Brennan has given Feely a couple of roastings & I think it might be better to stick Moolick on him; again physically a better match. If we as sloppy in our passing as last match, we can forget about it - Clare will murder us on counter attacks & their pacy players attacking from deep.

In terms of raw ability, definitely think there’s more in our squad but this Kildare team is so erratic I haven’t a clue to expect. We could be out of sight at half-time; it could another in O’Neill’s increasingly long list of debacles. Clare do give you space to play in, so if we can decent supply of ball to full forward line, they should do damage.

But I really don’t know what’s going to happen other than it will be a very important 80 mins for this team & manager.

flourman wrote:

Yes it’s Clare, and the fact we have picked 7 defenders says it all really ..

I get your point flour.. But k Cribben is not a defender and Eoin Doyle is not a centre back.

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

It’s pretty straightforward - O’Neill’s job is on the line. He’s three years in the position now & either he’s turned us into a Div 1 team or he hasn’t. If we don’t secure promotion, time to push off & let someone else have a go.

I’d actually be in favor of Glen Ryan taking over as interim manager for championship & appointing Davy Burke next year.

But let’s see how we go Sunday first. Imploring the players to empty themselves in this game. If we don’t get promoted it’s another wasted year for this team.

Some chance of Glen taking or being offered an interim role.

Just win. Thanks