Second half was 'worst we've played' - Brian Dowling gives his thoughts after Kilkenny relegate Kildare
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Brian Dowling’s Kildare came up well short when they faced his native Kilkenny in Round 4 of the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship
“It’s been the story of the Leinster Championship. The first halves have been really impressive and we've been in a good position in each of the games. Maybe not the Dublin game but the other ones we certainly did. We played into the wind in the first half and we came into the second half and we had an extra man that and just didn't push on,” the words of Brian Dowling after his side’s heavy defeat to his native Kilkenny, which relegated them from the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship.
“I suppose that last 30 minutes was probably the worst we’ve played in the last couple of years but that's credit to Kilkenny, they upped the ante big time obviously and that's what good teams do, they just go to a different level and we just couldn't match it in the second half.”
The Lilies trailed by just a single point and held a man advantage at the interval after Cian Kenny’s dismissal but were still blown away by Kilkenny in the second half, who hit 4-15 to Kildare’s 0-4.
Dowling added, “The one thing you don't want is them getting goals and that I was delighted with in the first half, with the wind, they got no goals against us. We obviously dropped our heads but I suppose it’s just so hard. Last week we gave absolutely everything against Galway and then this week again but that first 30 minutes, it just takes so much out of you.
“The things that we do right normally, we were making mistakes, we’re giving away hand-passes, we're dropping the ball. We didn't have a second there in the second half, we got turned over a few times so I just think it’s just a different level that these teams are able to get to and we just can't seem to match it for the full distance and that's just a learning curve.”
One eye-catching match up throughout the game was that of Rian Boran and TJ Reid with the Kildare man getting to test his top-tier talents against one of the game’s very best. After a quiet opening half with a single point scored and being denied a goal brilliantly by Paddy McKenna, Reid hit 2-5 in the second half as The Cats surged clear.
“We've seen TJ and what he can do, he’s 38 years of age but we know what he can do and you hit a high ball on top of him and it's just so hard to stop,” Dowling explained. “But I thought we managed him very well in the first half but I suppose there were a lot of balls in the second half and they upped it big time and we just couldn't cope with the intensity and the pace they were playing at. We needed to get a couple of goals and try to hold on to something but Kilkenny got them and that was the reaction they would have wanted at half-time I’m sure.”
The Kildare manager was understandably downbeat at full-time, as were the squad that slowly filtered out of the dressing room throughout his post-match media duties.
“We said coming down that we want to be in the Championship for another week and see what we can do, get a home crowd and have a go at it Offaly, who are a brilliant team. When it's a 70-minute match you have a chance and that's what we want to take down to home stretch,” Dowling said.
“It was in our own hands early on, we had enough matches and we knew we had to get points on the board and the Wexford one was a huge one and that's probably the one we regret the most, we had chances and we would have got two points on the board and head to head but unfortunately it wasn't to be.”
When asked how he picks up the group from here after their relegation back to the Joe McDonagh, Dowling said: “It's not easy, I just said in the group there that we have to do our best next Sunday against Offaly. It’s a Leinster Championship game, we're at home and we're going to respect the competition and we’re going to put our best foot forward.”