Kildare hurling manager reflects on late drama in Carlow draw

Kildare captain, Brian Byrne, pictured, summed it up as he headed for the dressing room following his side's draw with Carlow saying “a very strange feeling, despite getting a draw, you have to feel very disappointed with just one point.”

And how right the Naas man was, yet on reflection having trailed for most of the game, six points adrift as we approached the 60 minute then going into a two point lead, denied a penalty and then failing to take both points when Carlow's Chris Nolan hit a brilliant sideline cut between the sticks to tie the game, one might say a point was probably all that Kildare deserved.

But when looks back on the opening half in particular, a half that Kildare failed and failed miserably to translate their a lot of possession on to the score board, hitting no less than 13 wides in that opening half, then, yes, without question one has to be disappointed, in fact very disappointed.

Manager David Herity, struggled initially to sum up the game before saying “it is very hard to know how to feel to be honest, it was a game that in the second half was going away from us, then they (Carlow) got a red card, we came back into it, went ahead, fell asleep at a crucial time, particularly with that sideline they won but then they missed a few frees.”

While admitting that looking at the group (Division 2A) nothing has really changed, and looking at the final set of fixtures Herity added, that depending on other results if Meath win we could be relegated; if Carlow win we are safe, if we can beat Westmeath we are safe, so it is just all over the place.

“I am extremely proud of the fact that we came back from a game that everything that could have gone wrong went wrong in that first half, we couldn't hit a free over the bar; our sidelines were all over the place; we were setting them up for scores; some of the things we tried to concentrate on before the match to deny them that primary possession from puck-outs, we just didn't do; we did get some of the match-ups right but others we got wrong, but now we have two big weeks ahead of us before we take on Westmeath.

“We have a lot of players to come back in, Paul Divilly, Neil Ó Muineacháin, Cian Bracken, Conal Boran, Mark Delaney, Jack Travers, Tom Finnerty, these lads will all be coming into contention in the next two weeks and we will need that full panel.”

Looking back on that opening half the manager conceded that “we created the chances but our shot efficiency was only 30 per cent, Carlow's was 90, and while you get days when you are creating but not scoring and that was one of those days; another time those frees would be going straight over but for whatever reason today they just didn't and that is something we will have to look at before the next day but having said that a lot of lads did play well, very well, we just did not get the scores, scores we would normally get.”