'There are positives we are starting to see' says Glenn Ryan after Kildare's relegation to Division 3 is confirmed
The Kildare men's footballers suffered their sixth defeat and remain on zero points after the Donegal loss
As Kildare manager Glenn Ryan emerged from what, no doubt, was a very disappointed dressing room to meet the press he was first greeted by Donegal Co Chairperson and former Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan with a big hand shake.
And with that pleasantry over Glenn admitted that while he was very disappointed he said he felt there were positives to be taken despite the loss.
“Obviously disappointing we didn't win the game but I think there are positives we are staring to see which we didn't see earlier in the league; the fellas gave everything that they could, made it a bit difficult for themselves at times but in terms of effort and the commitment to trying their best tonight we just couldn't fault them.”
The manager added that “this has been a very tough couple of weeks but the players haven't flinched in any regard and they have given us anything that they could have and especially tonight.”
Glenn said that they got themselves back into after the goal “a brilliant goal” but we didn't score after that and that is very disappointing but it wasn't through any lack of work-rate but in fairness to Donegal they kicked some magnificent scores, particularly in the first half; we did everything we could do to defend situations and it was just a brilliant score in the end that broke it down from our perspective, so a lot of the time you have to say the quality of their (Donegal) shooting tonight was really good but I felt the quality of our defending was top class but they still managed to get scores.”
Acknowledging that it was difficult for Kildare to keep up the intensity they had shown in the first half while admitting “we started slow in the second half, turned the ball over when we just needed to get that bit of momentum but I suppose on other nights when we made those mistakes we went into our shell altogether and I don't think we did that tonight; they battled and battled, certainly some good will come out of it and hopefully we will see it in the championship.”
Asked if Kildare's scoring tally (1-8) made it difficult to win games, the manager said “very difficult to win games with that but with the quality of games we have but we have fellas to come back and that will help in that regard.”
On the injury front Ryan said “we won't be getting them all back in the short term but hopefully one or two are not too far away.”
While admitting they won't be rushing any players back the manager added “still we are only a month away from the championship and we want to get fellas back on the pitch as quick as we can and from our perspective next week is important to get game-time for fellas and to get a bit of momentum.”