No panic in Grangenolvin dressing room at half time

Grangenolvin manager David Conway certainly wasn’t admitting to any panic at half-time as his side trailed by five points to their Offaly contenders, arguing that they had done a lot of the right things in that half.

“I said to the lads, technically on the play in the first half we should have actually been ahead, we missed 1-3 from placed balls to the standard that we would normally expect to score them because Fionn (Bergin) is that good. So, to be honest that was even with us not widening the pitch, with us giving stupid turnovers and yes, we found ourselves five points behind. But structurally what we had done in the first half, even though we’d done it poorly, we still should have been ahead. I just kept telling them, lads we brought a five-point lead back to one point deficit in seven minutes in the first half so there’s absolutely no reason why we’re not going to be able to do it in thirty minutes in the second half.” 

The introduction of Conall Bergin was he felt only one element of the second half turnaround, the star midfielder having suffered from a “niggle” in the lead up to the game.

“We played a practice match last weekend and he kind of aggravated it so we’re trying to get it to settle,” he told the Kildare Nationalist.

"But we were dominating their kickout and we knew we could potentially get a bit of joy out of it so we really focused on it, and I think you can see for most of the second half that’s where we really got joy.” 

Laois man Conway felt they had the groundwork done and he could see a way back into it despite that half-time deficit.

“If the lads stay true to themselves, they have the ability to dig themselves out of whatever situation. We believe in our own fitness, we believe we’ve the work done and maybe it was a few weeks but yes, in the second half Conall came in and he kicked points. He was involved in the second score alright, but he wasn’t involved in some of the other scores. If you win primary possession and get on the front foot, it makes the game very easy.” He and his team are relishing the fresh challenges a provincial crown brings.

“It's the unknown, Leinster, and every county is very much an unknown, who you’re coming up against. Like, we were obviously playing a team that is technically the 18th best in Offaly and Offaly are strong in that competition. We’re here to represent Kildare and we’re going to put our best foot forward. Obviously, it may not have looked like that in the first half, but we got ticking and I think we did ourselves proud and Kildare proud in the second half.”