Goals crucial admits Kildare boss Ryan

KILDARE coach Glenn Ryan was offering no excuses after his side’s loss to Kerry on Saturday night. But his pain and anguish was clear to see.

“We didn’t play to the level we are capable of and paid the price. Kerry showed a lot of class and we couldn’t match them in lots of areas,” said Ryan.

“We can still be very proud of our lads and what they have achieved this year, but the big prize was what we were after.

“That has eluded us which is most disappointing.

“They showed a fantastic attitude and a great desire to play this game which can only be good for Kildare football in the future.”

“We always hear that goals win games and Kerry took their two in great style. We did have one chance in the second half and had Gavin (Smullen) scored, who knows how the game would have panned out.

“Kerry played a very fast, open brand of football, something I had hoped our lads would have done but on the night we failed to live up to our own expectations and that’s the most disappointing aspect.

“Down by only two points at half time, I felt that if we got a couple of early scores, we could rattle Kerry, but fair play to them, they hit us with a second goal which was real sucker punch. We never really recovered from that.

“It been a hard campaign but I would like to believe we have restored some pride to Kildare football. There are a lot of people throughout the country and within our own county who completely under-estimated this team and didn’t give them the credit they deserve. After tonight maybe they’ll think differently.”

Looking to the future Ryan said he would like to think that a number of his side would go on to play senior with the county.

“They should be given time to develop further and possibly drip feed them into the senior grade. We have seven of the starting 15 underage again for next year which is a solid base to begin from. But that’s for another day.”