Flanagan: "They're unbelievably resilient for their age"
Kildare boss Brian Flanagan. Photo: INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan.
Brian Flanagan hailed the resilience of his team as he reflected on a “tough few weeks,” and Sunday’s result that brought Kildare’s difficult season back to life after a disappointing finish to the League campaign.
The players had “put the shoulders to the wheel” these past few weeks after the Louth defeat confirmed relegation, he told us.
“To be fair to this group they’re unbelievably resilient for their age and I’d have to give them massive credit for that over the last four weeks. To be relegated in the league can knock groups. You can have players go missing. We didn’t have any of that. We had a group that stuck together, nobody blamed anyone, there was no pointing the fingers. It was just ‘let’s get on with it’.
"Prep went really well, injuries aside. I had a good feeling coming into today, and I’m just delighted to get over the line.” He felt the team handled first-half setbacks well and put that down to having been here before.
“We felt it mirrored a lot of what happened in the Derry first half, that there was a lot of emotion in that first half, lads sent off or yellow cards, black cards, missed chances, everything else. But, we brought a real calmness I think at half-time this time around. It was, listen what do we need to fix, what do we need to do to get over the line here and the boys went out and did it.”
That half-time break saw Kildare seek clarity from referee Conor Lane as to what disciplinary measures might be coming the way of Ben Loakman and Laois goalkeeper Killian Roche after their altercation before the whistle. Lane cleared that up quickly.
“We went looking for it (clarity). We got word that it was going to be two yellows for the lads, so that at least put us at ease. I think it’s important that teams know that, that meant you can plan fifteen versus fifteen as opposed to being a man down or up.”
Loakman gave his own take on that particular incident immediately after his missed penalty.
“I hit the crossbar for the penalty and then someone came behind me and then there was a couple of lads around me and I just grabbed one of them. He made a bit of a show of himself to be honest. (After that) I just knew, don’t do anything stupid, a couple of their lads were trying to get into my head or whatever, but it was grand.”
Flanagan was grateful for the impact off the bench of the likes of Kevin Feely and Ben McCormack, neither of whom looked particularly hampered by injury.
“Ben certainly brought it, Kevin Feely (too). We knew we’d need impact off the bench. We thought we were in a good position there with Colm Moran and Neil Flynn, all these lads who could come in and change a game. They were always going to be needed. James McGrath, big strapping on the leg, you were probably a bit nervy about it beforehand, played really well, got better I thought as the game went on and the same with Callum and a few others.”
Darragh Kirwan certainly turned a corner with his performance on the day, though Flanagan has maintained solid support for the Naas attacker these past couple of months.
“I know people have maybe been critical of him, that he’s not been getting the scores. But we as a management see everything else that he’s doing and he’s in position where there’s a lot more than just getting scores required, I think he’s been excellent in terms of his work rate, through the middle, defensive transition, driving forward, taking on one on ones and winning frees. Today the scores came as well but he’s too good of a footballer for that not to happen at some stage and we had to stick with him and trust him and Darragh knows we have his back.”
Looking ahead to the semi-final, Flanagan insisted he was not particularly surprised at Westmeath’s win over Meath.
“Westmeath are a proper side and they’d a win under their belt. They were always going to bring a huge battle and they’ve a huge amount of quality in the team if you look at Wallace, McCartan, Ray Connellan, Luke Loughlin. They’ll be brimming with confidence after what they did today so yeah, it’s a really exciting game to look forward to and prepare for now.”
It seems he can prepare with options increasing all the time suggesting “pretty much all” of the injured players will be back in contention.
“You look at Padraic Spillane with an AC joint, that’s just an impact thing that you couldn’t throw him in today, but he should be good. Harry O’Neill was available if we needed to bring him on. But we just felt going down the home stretch that things were going our way and we didn’t want to risk anything there. Jack Robinson, Ryan Sinkey, Alex Beirne and Colm Dalton should all be back available in the next seven to ten days and we’ll see how they get on from there.”
It’s certainly nice to be looking forward to another provincial semi-final after a difficult few months.
The Carbury sharpshooter was back at something close to his best with incisive, direct running both creating and finishing opportunities. Apart from five points from play Cully ‘assisted’ Ben Loakman’s goal with his shot off the crossbar. His marker was summoned to the bench after that. Enough said. Eoin Lawlor, Brendan Gibbons, Ben McCormack and Darragh Kirwan were other contenders.
The return to form of Cully and Kirwan in attack and Gibbons in midfield, who covered acres of ground and made two telling clearances in his own goalmouth in the second half. Two or three nice catches as well.
Kildare could easily have gone into their shells with the concession of the two goals and the penalty miss. They came out fighting.
The news post-game that the injured cohort are on the road to recovery.
Kick Out wipe-out in the first half (see stats) · The defence still looks too open at times. Laois were limited enough but created opportunities far too easily in the first half and again late in the game when Kildare went to sleep somewhat.
Kildare only retained 27% of their first half kick-outs, though that improved to 55% after the break for a 41% overall average. On all kickouts Kildare only won the same 41% figure. Needs improvement still. Shooting was better than it has been at times this season with Kildare shooting a relatively low 7 wides with a 66% overall return on shot attempts (21 scores from 32). Laois shot 16 scores from 31 shots (52%).
Kildare face Westmeath, who they beat in last year’s quarter final, in their eighth successive provincial semi final, in Tullamore on Sunday week (3 May) at 2pm. The evening before, holders Louth play Dublin in Portlaoise at 7pm.
