Kildare midfield maestro Feely discusses free-taking, high fielding and overcoming Down

The press area in Down was filled with impressed onlookers who had hardly seen Kevin Feely play before. The paltry crowd of around 1,700 spectators were wowed by his display of high fielding and place-kicking, while manager Cian O'Neill described his performance as 'massive' and pointed to his leadership qualities following the game.

"The way he has been controlling the game, whether it's in defence or attack, his leadership skills are just second to none, and he has put in big shifts with a lot of minutes in a lot of matches, and still he produces that," beamed O'Neill.

"Full credit to him, and full credit to everyone around him because when he gets the ball he needs to do something with it, and that's where the rest of the group comes in."

Feely did something that is rarely seen in football on Saturday night; he dispatched frees from a variety of angles and distances by using both his left and right foot as he took over those duties from the injured Neill Flynn, who is out of action following an appendix operation and will not play in the remainder of the league campaign.

He kicked two fine frees off his left foot in the first half, before switching onto his right to land a long range point into a stiff breeze and driving rain at the beginning of the second, and he then followed up by slotting over a couple more with his left for good measure. He isn't a regular free-taker for his club Athy, and this was the first time he had ever taken on that mantle in a white jersey. Speaking after the game, Feely admitted he was a little nervous, and when it was put to him that 'it wasn't a bother to him', he quickly gave an insight into the preparation involved.

"I wouldn't say not a bother; it was something that was playing on my mind all week when the boys asked me if I wanted to have a go at them," said Feely.

"I worked hard at them this week practicing. It's not something I'd be overly familiar with, because in Athy we have some excellent free-takers like Darroch Mulhall and James Eaton. I was probably a little bit outside my comfort zone but I just backed myself and luckily they went well for me, so I was happy enough."

"At this point if I wasn't able to kick it equally off both feet I wouldn't be very happy with myself, so it's something I've always practiced," he said.

Apart from the frees there was another facet of Feely's game that made him stand out as the best player in Newry. The former professional soccer player lorded the skies and registered four marks in an absolutely dominant display as he often battled with two Down men in the air for possession before clawing the ball into his grasp. The introduction of the mark has certainly helped him to stand out, and he revealed that it was something he was looking forward to when he heard it was coming in.

"It's always something that I was going to welcome to the game. I place a huge emphasis on winning primary possession and in Kildare we're lucky to have a huge amount of ball winners in around the middle of the pitch where we can always change it up," he said.

"It doesn't have to always just be going to just Tommy[Moolick], myself, Fionn[Dowling] or Pascal[Connell] so there's great variety for the kicker, and it puts opposition kickers under pressure if we're blocking up all the channels he can kick to. Thankfully we've been able to use it to our advantage in the last few games."

Down provided Kildare with what was probably their toughest test in Division 2 so far - outside of the helter skelter Derry game - and their defensive style gave the Lilywhites something different to think about. Feely outlined how Kildare were prepared to face such a gameplan from the Mourne men, and their ability to grind out the result in testing conditions is the most pleasing aspect of their trip up north.

"It's probably as tough as you're going to get, coming up to Down. They're warriors; they're scrappers and the conditions only added to that style of game. It was nothing we didn't expected and we were prepared for that. We knew it was hugely important for us to grind out a result, and to show that we can grind out a result in difficult conditions against certain styles of play. We'll be happy, we'll still have to analyse it, but we'll be happy with our performance today grinding out that result," he said.

"To me it sums up Division 2. These are the different challenges you're going to face against different teams and it's a huge standard of football. It's a huge gap between [Divisions] 3 and 4 and it's a huge step, but we were really looking forward to these challenges of facing all of these different styles of play, and as long as we learn from each game and adapt to these different styles of play we'll be happy where we are."

Kildare now have seven days to prepare before they face into a game against Clare next weekend. A win will secure them of a place in Division 1 for the first time since 2014 and seal back-to-back promotions for Cian O'Neill in his first two years in charge of the county.