‘We just had to dig deeper,’ says Kildare captain Doyle

KILDARE captain John Doyle has applauded the character shown by his team when dethroning Leinster SFC champions Westmeath.

The effort was all the more remarkable, as the Lilywhites played 50 minutes with 14 men.

But overturning such odds is nothing new. Eight years ago, the county defeated Laois in a Leinster quarter-final with only 13 players and they almost repeated the trick against the same opponents two years ago in the provincial final.

"It was exhausting going. It's a big pitch out there, but we're delighted with the win," said Doyle.

"We worked hard. It was never going to be easy. Even games that should be easy for us never are, because we always make hard work of them. That's just the way we are.

"We knew it would be tough after Ronan (Sweeney) was sent off. Every man knew the job they had to do and we just had to dig that little bit deeper and lads came up trumps in the end," he said.

Kildare's mental strength was needed from the off, as the champions shot into a four-point lead after six minutes and were playing some sublime football.

Pauric Nolan's men never hit the panic button and they were level within 20 minutes, even after Sweeney was sent to the line.

"They came at us fairly hard and heavy in those first few minutes," Doyle said. "They looked very dangerous but, in fairness to the lads in the middle, they started winning some good ball and the defence tightened up as well. The service of ball coming into the forwards was good and everyone stuck to their task."

The seeds for the win were sown mostly around the middle of the park, where Westmeath's much vaunted pairing of Rory O'Connell and David O'Shaughnessy were engulfed by a far hungrier Kildare.

"Maybe, there was a bit of that," said Doyle. "Westmeath went there to win as well. They were Leinster champions after all. We have a lot of big men around the middle and Dermot Earley came back in there as well. We have big midfielders, like Killian Brennan and Mick Foley, who won vital possession and breaking ball. They got the ball in as quick as they could."

Doyle can vouch for that better than anyone after an afternoon that saw him score six points, five from play.

Since making his championship debut in 2000, the Allenwood player has twice finished as top scorer for the county in the championship (2002 and 2004). But, with Sunday's efforts following on from his seven-point haul against Wicklow, Doyle seems to be on course for his best summer yet.

"I spent a lot of my career with Kildare in the half-forward line and I'm gone into the full-forward line now and I'm there to do a job. If the shots aren't going over, then I'm not doing my job, it's as simple as that. But you're depending on the ball coming in and after that some days they go over and some days they don't."

In fact, it's hard to square the Kildare team of two days ago with the one that struggled so much against

Wicklow a fortnight earlier, but Doyle said the extra game was of benefit.

"The Wicklow game brought us forward. We found a bit of character inside us the last day as well when things were going against us. We dug that bit deeper and credit to Wicklow that day, they made us dip into the reserve tank and we came out of it."

Next up is another shot at Laois, who Kildare lost narrowly and unluckily to in the Leinster final of 2003. Yet, any suggestion of gaining revenge was batted away pretty quickly by Doyle.

"We actually lost two Leinster titles on the trot not so long ago and, when you're from Kildare you don't get that many chances to win those.

"It'll be a local derby and they'll be up for it every bit as much as we will. We were disappointed in 2003, but we won't treat this game any differently to any other," said Doyle.