Doyle wary of Micko ex-factor

KILDARE captain John Doyle admits that the ‘Micko factor’ is certain to add a bit of spice to their meeting with Laois in Sunday’s Bank of Ireland Leinster SFC semi-final in Croke Park.

"In fairness, Micko's name is still very high, he took us from depression days. He will always be a friend of Kildare people, but I'm sure his name will be mentioned once or twice in our dressing room on Sunday as ours will be in the Laois dressing room," he said in Dublin yesterday.

Kildare are on a mission of atonement, with Sunday being the next step on the path.

"Last year, we were beaten by Wexford in the Leinster championship and then Offaly beat us in Newbridge in the qualifier.

"Defeats like that hurt a team. We knew we weren't as bad as we played and lads were eager to get back into the championship. If you asked them in the dressing room after the Offaly match they would have loved to be going out the next day to redeem themselves. But we had to wait.

"There's a lot of pride and spirit in the Kildare team and a lot of lads were hurt by the way we went about our business. We think we're improving on that, and hopefully we can bring it a step further the next day."

After the glory days of 1998, when they reached the All- Ireland final and regained the Leinster title in 2000, Doyle points out that the county's success in the U-21 championship last year and their qualification for the minor final has rekindled pride and hope.

"There's a good crop of young players coming through and this year there is a bit more hype about the senior team. Young lads want to be putting on the Kildare jersey. Morale is up and that's a good thing. Kildare is a football-mad county. People want to see us back to where we were a few years ago," he said.

"We went in as underdogs against Westmeath and rightly so, because they were Leinster champions. We lost Ronan Sweeney early on, which was a big blow, but we started to win ball around the middle and that made the difference to the forwards inside.

"Laois came the same road as ourselves, except they had a lot more success at underage than we had. Mick provided the glue that got them together and he has brought them to a new level. They are a bit like us, looking to bring it a step further.

"It's a tough game to call. People are saying they were lucky to win the last day against Offaly, but they got the win they wanted.

"They'll take huge spirit from that."