Kildare 0-15 Antrim 0-15

well lads and lassies, what do we make of that?
i thought that we played well enough, but didnt capatilize on the scoring chances. fairplay to dermot earley what a man.
the backs were good enough.
however i was very appalled by a particluar group of antrim supporters, who came across as quite rude to say the least.

If we had a good manager we would have won by 10

tpos - what kind of idiot are idiot are you?

Did McGeeney kick the 22 wides himself? Was it Mc Geeney that denied Kildare a blatent penalty in extra time, was it Mc Geeney who missed a one-on-one with the Antrim keeper in the first half? Did Mc Geeney move the upright to when O'Connor hit it in extra time.

Mc Geeney deserves great credit for the way Kildare played on Saturday night. We were much stronger in defense, although the Full Back line was never really tested - this is a direct result of dominating Midfield and winning 70% + of the breaking ball.

On another day we could easily have knocked up 1-20+ and beaten Antrim and theior annoying fans out the gate.

Referee Deegan from Laois was once again appalling - blatant penalty denied, and gave Antrim some very easy frees to keep them in it. He also allowed Cunningham take 2-3 yards out of every free he attempted, with his Irish Jig before stricking the ball - deadly acurate free taker, but he should not be allowed gain yards of advantage when taking a free.

On another note: Why does JD persist with taking frees > 40 yards out from the ground, when it has been blatently obvious that it is outside his comefort range. Either take it from the hands (and steal the same yards the Cunningham did) or give it to somebody else.

Kildare dominated this game for 80-90% of the time - and I don't see any reason why that will change on their patch next week.

Yeah well said florman,covered everything there really.

They played everyone very deep so it was always goin to be hard to score against them,and forced to shoot from distance.But saying that,some of our shooting was awful and some of our option taking is awful,some guys trying to be heros all the time shooting from the sideline 45 metres out.
Jd prob should have passed on the free taking to jimmers or someone with a decent left foot,or take from his hands.
That game will bring the lads on no-end,and we should have learned a hell of a lot from the game,if we have that amount of possession again and if we win that much breaking ball then i think we'll win the next day.

tpos your a gobshite,back up your points with facts....

If your happy with a draw with Antrim at home, he did a good job. What other team do is push up on the spare defender and send in quick ball,that why Antrin struggle against good teams. Not defenders soloing up the field to give them a chance to regroup.
I'm hoping that he will do that next week we will win by 10.
Its not the players fault but the way the team was set up.

Good to see a forum up and running again.

Very exciting game on Saturday, I agree with alot of what flourman said above.

There is no doubt Kildare should have won that game - some stupid mistakes and poor shooting let us down. Great to see an imrpovement from the Louth game.

When I saw the starting team it didn't fill me with too much confidence but the lads put in a much better effort and played with alot more passion and heart especially given the difficult circumstances.

Any idea if Smyth will be back for the next game? We definitely need someone else up there apart from JD. Callaghan seemed to be playing around the half back line late in the game and did well.
Is Flanagan injured? He played well in first half but later was caught for pace a few times.

I see if we beat Antrim we've got Leitrim in next game at home! Good draw and really hope they can go up to Belfast now and win

Great effort from the lads from start to finish. Smith should be available for saturday.

That wind was a bugger 11 wides in the first half, and we nearly lost it at the end. That would've been cruel. Hopefully, the thoughts of a relatively easy fixture against Leitrim in Newbridge will spur the lads on on Saturday. Won't make the game myself, a prior engagement as they say. But Kildare will need all the support they can get. Wonder if it'll be on the telly?

first things first maurice deegan is a little bitter ballox and he should be ashamed of himself it was blatantly obvious he didn`t want kildare to win on saturday night, he shouldn`t be allowed ref another inter county game if he is going to be biased against neighbours or any team.

on the match itself i thought we were much the better team they seemed to find it very hard to score which is a huge improvement on the louth game where scores were so easy to get against us.
couple of players who played well for us were-
1 peter kelly done well on a decent forward in paddy cunningham
2 emmet bolton at wing back seems much more comfortable there
3 doyle worked his socks off seemed to showing well even tough he was been marked by 2 lads
4 flynn man of the match in my view had a super game
5 callaghan had a great game when moved to centreback whats going on with flanagan not playing anywhere near his best.


looking ahead to the next day i think we should win well if smith is back i also think we have to change the keeper purely based on kick outs his kick outs are slow and hanging in the air way too long, too easy to break these kickouts there was 4 and 5 lads jumping for every kickout

Not goin to be easy up north but so glad to see kildare 50% back to normal at least. last year it seemed we couldn miss, but loked a bit latargic on saturday...no harm tho as i feel we'll come good again.
good post centreback agree with it all altho felt it slightly harsh to bring Hugh lynch off. as he didnt seem to do much wrong...chalky however, probly suited the sweeper role better. Seen lynch in the junior matchs and he knows how to take a score.
dont think sweeney was up to much in the full forward line thought leper and JD were a better option in there. great to see peter kelly make Paddy cunningham annoymous for most of the game...Antrim ,unfortunately, lived of frees which cunningham could not miss!!

whitetop 1990 wrote:

dont think sweeney was up to much in the full forward line thought leper and JD were a better option in there.

Really? Roli was probably Kildare's best player on the night. Ó Conchuir in the Examiner named him MOTM.

I thought Kildare were the better side on Saturday so hopefully the lads can kick on again for next weekend. If can win midfield again and our forwards bring their shooting boots, we can win in Belfast.

I know the Ref wasn't great but we must work on not conceding that many frees on sat,Cunningham will put them over all day long,and annoy the f**k out of us with the donnie kingston/riverdance copy.
Who was it that upended one of there players when he tried to run through us for about the 5th time? Excellent free to give away as they never even tried to run at us again,put the fear of god into him.
The supersub 4 steps to winning sat.
1 Win midfield battle.
2 win breaking battle
3 dont conceed many frees within 45 metres
4 dont let them run through us.

Jesus whitetop 1990, dont where you are going with sweeney not up to much! Won every ball that was send into him in the first half and laid them off for scores and all scored 2 great points himself! Think they made a mistake in moving him out...

Agree, thought Roli played one of his best games for a long time.
The one thing I noticed was that Kildare had Antrim on the ropes every time they played quick, long and diagonal balls into JD and Roli inside during the first half - that delivery rendered Antrim's sweeper system meaningless. Kildare also put serious pressure on the man in possession high up the pitch.
But somehow Kildare lost their way in the second half and too often carried possession into tackles and blind alleys, when early delivery was what was needed. Having said that Kildare should have been out the gate at half-time, at least five or six points the better team during the first half. But overall the wide count was unreal, no team is going to win by kicking 21 wides!
Still a huge improvement from the Louth game and hopefully the can keep getting better.
Casement Park is going to be a huge test for the players, especially after both the emotional and physical effort that they put in last Saturday. Hopefully they can raise their game cause this the time of the year that county teams want to be playing...unless you are from Mayo!!

maybe i was just put off by him in full forward...more used to him out around the middle can throw himself around a bit more!

Before this thread falls off the front page I just want to say what an incredible show of strength and courage Dermot Junior showed on saturday evening to play in that game. Its a pity one of our 23 wides didnt go over to give the big man some minor solace on what must have been a hugely emotional and difficult day for him.

100% agree, when you read the shite the footballers in the world cup are complaining about it shows what a legend the man is and forever will be.

Bravery beyond the call of duty, he is a role model for old and young.

Thanks Dermot we are all very grateful to have a man like you playing for us.

I'll just add that the picture in the Kildare post where Dermot's brother is helping him off the field says a thousand words.