Dowling: "You want to try and win everything you can"

“It's nice to get the win," Kildare manager Brian Dowling said following his side's 0-17 to 2-10 win over Antrim. 

“We were very frustrated last Sunday that the game was called off, rightfully so, but we were mad for a game, you know, we haven't had one yet this year, so to get a game this week was very important.

“Also you know we’ve a bye in round one of the League so we said to the lads before the match it's very important to get the win today to give us another game next week and then we have two weeks to build up to the Dublin game."

Dowling said his team "showed great character" to win, and praised the attitude of his players: “There's never any harm in winning games, whether it's a challenge game, Welsh Cup, Leinster, League, you want to try and win everything you can.

“We had a terrible start to the second half, letting in two goals within two minutes and facing into the elements, you know, our backs were to the wall there. But in fairness to the lads they dug in, they stayed going and two lads came on - Jack Travers, Liam O'Reilly - got the last two scores. That's brilliant to see that lads are coming in and making a difference. We know we need a big panel this year, we need lads pushing - we have huge games ahead and we need more than 15 lads, we need lads coming in making a difference."

The game provided an opportunity for several players to make their mark. “We have a few new players in and look, Gerry Keegan there probably didn't expect to play 52 minutes; he's missed a lot of action there in the last number of weeks," Dowling said. 

"We just need to get game time into the likes of Gerry and a few more; there's still a few more lads still to come back and they're just recovering from injuries, a lot of lads working on their own, and the aim is to get lads back for the Dublin game. It's important for the likes of Michael Owens, Tom Power, Tim Ryan, these young lads, Caolan Smith starting there, just get exposure to this level and look that's what it's about and hopefully they'll keep improving over the next few weeks."

Dowling is also hopeful of seeing the return of a few familiar faces: "Some lads will be touch and go. James Borke is doing incredible work; what that man has put in in the last six months is unreal. He's well on track.

"The aim is to get James minutes in the league all going well; everything he does is meticulous and the effort he's putting in behind the scenes, it's just great to see.

"Conan Boran the same thing, we were devastated last year in the county final, he did his cruciate and then he had a setback, but Conan is very close - he's not far away at all, so just really need to get minutes into him and he'll definitely see game time in the start of the league. 

"Cathal Dowling and Simon Lacey, they're back, we were just kind of getting them fully right before we throw them back in."