Kildare manager Brian Flanagan reacts to six-point defeat to Offaly
The Kildare boss spoke to the media after his side suffered their second Allianz Football League Division 3 defeat in a 2-17 to 0-17 loss to Offaly
"We weren't expecting that kind of a result, we knew there was a possibility. Any time you go away and playing a very good team like Offaly under Mickey and Declan, they play a very good brand of football, fast, explosive, counter-attacking football as they did today. They were deserving winners, so unfortunately we go home with a lot to reflect on, a lot of think about, a lot of big questions asked of us today and we will have to respond to next week.”
The words of an extremely disappointed Kildare manager, Brian Flanagan, following his side's six-point defeat to Offaly in the Allianz Football League on Sunday.
The manager added “I thought they were cutting through us in the middle at times a lot of their defenders are very strong, driving forward and we were chasing shadows at times for 10-15 minutes of that second half and that is when they got a foothold, I though at 14-12 we had moments to kick on and build a score, but we didn't do that and Offaly came back and kicked on.”
"Part execution and part shot selection, taking them on from bad angles and other times they are just not going over, we aware of that that working on it.
“I though we were flat” continued Flanagan, “we didn't have the energy today for some reason I don't know the answer to that, everything was good the last ten days or so in training, coming here expecting a response to what happened in Clare but we just didn't get it.”
The manager added that it was the execution that disappointed him most. “I thought we would make better decisions going forward, I give credit to the lads when they fought back, the second half got themselves into a good position but we didn't kick on; Offaly looked more dynamic, for some reason the energy just was not there today.”
The manager added that this team is in the early development but days like today we just have to be better in dealing with it, we now have to put our heads down and win next Sunday.