'That game will stand to us' says Kildare manager after thrilling win

A game in slippy conditions, our football wasn't perfect at times but we showed great character again, mental strength came out when Offaly were throwing everything at us for the that last ten minutes or so, delighted with the win, we have five (wins) from five so far this year playing at home, delighted with that and really looking forward to the semi-final.

The words of Kildare manager, Brian Flanagan, following his side's one point over Offaly in Newbridge on Saturday evening.
“Huge support” adding Flanagan, adding “and huge credit to the hurlers for what they achieved last week and there was big support to follow them initially and they stayed on for us, and that only added to it and our lads fed off that and it added to the energy and that all helped on the day.”

The manager said he felt “every player who started or came on did very well, we said to the lads at half-time 'we are not doing anything wrong hitting every target we set out to hit' maybe we could have done it with a little bit more intensity and pace at times and we set out to do that in the second half.”

Brian Flanagan added that he felt “Kildare played some of their best football at the start of that second half , we went seven up and you would wonder how it got so hairy coming down the stretch; we left a few scores behind that would have pushed us clear and when we didn't if you leave a team like Offaly in with a fight, they will always come back at you, they are too good a team not to, but that game will be the making of us.”

When you win a game comfortable you don't learn a lot but when you are somewhat uncomfortable, as we were in the last ten or so, that is when you learn and we will learn from that, added a very happy manager.

Captain Delighted
“We came into this game saying whatever it takes, win at all costs, we would not have been able to take losing three times in a row to the same team especially in Newbridge where we have been unbeaten all year; hopefully everyone saw that in the desire and way we played that we weren't leaving that without the win.”

The Athy maestro said he felt “we played some savage football at the start of the second half but Offaly are a super team, you have to give them credit as well, they stepped up with those two-pointers, something they have done to us in the past, we knew they would be a bounce back and seeing if we could respond to that the right way; we won some brilliant breaking ball around the middle and that showed we learned a little bit and being able to get the momentum back in our favour when we needed to.”

Tough
Tommy Gill admitted that Kildare had a lot to rectify from the last time and make sure we made up for our errors the last day; tough out there for but the same for both teams and it is great now to have Croke Park to look forward to.

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