Sallins coach says responding to pressure is the 'main thing' ahead of Kildare IFC Final

Manning the touchline alongside former Blessington manager and current Sallins boss Jonathan Daniels in recent years has been coach George Digan and he spoke to the Leinster Leader about Sallins’ much-discussed mentality heading into their first final in 22 years.

Digan explained, “We had to address it (pressure) with them. We were the management team there last year and we didn’t get a performance last year against Caragh, which was the most disappointing thing and obviously the year before and before again as well. We addressed it with them and in fairness they took it on the chin because we had a couple of hard conversations about where it went wrong and where we thought we needed to rectify things. It was very satisfying then (against Milltown) and you could tell by the relief on lads faces.”

One of Sallins’ most precarious moments came in their Semi-Final when a trailing Milltown hit a goal and a two-pointer in quick-succession after half-time to close the gap, but the leading side regained control and shut down any hopes of comeback.

“That was the main thing (responding to pressure). Teams are going to get a purple patch, especially Milltown who are fantastic footballers. We saw a bit from them last year and even more this year,” Digan said.

“Key players can dictate a game very quickly. You can’t let good teams get five, six, seven like we hit them with in the burst in the first half of the Semi-Final and got the two goals.”

The mention of key players naturally turns the mind to what Sallins will face in the decider with the Larries young guns getting plenty of praise in their Semi-Final win.

However, the likes of Cian Grimes, James and Colm Dalton and Stephen Kelly are all firing up front for Sallins and that power will be hard to live with. That being said, Sallins have conceded just one goal in this year’s Kildare IFC with Joe Dunne of Milltown the only man breach Matthew Farrelly's goal.

Digan added, “Any good team is built on a defence and the boys have been rock solid this year.”

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