McGeeney points to missed chances

It used to be that you could wander around Croke Park at will.

Journalists sat beside half-robed and sometimes bloody players in dressing-rooms discussing the battle just waged.

Even private post-mortems could be discerned through the walls if a manager’s irritation stoked the decibel levels to a sufficient peak.

Not anymore.

These days, the twain never meet unless within the sanitised walls of a fit-for-purpose interview room and the distance created – figurative and literal – affords players and coaches time to gather themselves and compose their thoughts.

Half an hour passed after the last whistle before Kieran McGeeney arrived to share his thoughts and, while it was tempting to imagine the air turning blue in the Kildare dressing-room, he radiated the calm of Buddha as he took his seat.

“We had four goal chances in the end and nine kicks dropped short,” said McGeeney of a game where they also recorded five wides.

“Overall in footballing terms we were well in it if not more in it than they were.

“But they got two goal chances and put them away.

“We got four or five and we didn’t hit any of them.

“They were well-worked and we got in on the goalkeeper but pulled them wide. It’s poor.”

It’s a refrain Kildare’s supporters and detractors are well acquainted with in recent years but not so the manner in which Tyrone sliced and diced their defence after the interval when scoring two goals and spurning a seemingly easy third.

“I wouldn’t be worried about it,” McGeeney said before adding he had been happy with their production rate in that department in the O’Byrne Cup.

“To be honest, I thought we did well up until the 45th minute keeping a team like Tyrone at that level.

“But their number six [Peter Harte] attacking from half-back and [Martin] Penrose dropping deep worked for them.

“I thought in terms of individual battles we did well enough but I’d be disappointed we didn’t do more up front.”

All in all then, another iffy league outing for Kildare who have already flattered to deceive in Division 2 for three seasons now and that failure to move up the last rung of the ladder stands as a black mark against them.

Doing so this time, at the fourth attempt, isn’t beyond them just because of one defeat.

The second tier still has one or two soft touches in store but sooner or later this Kildare team is going to have to substitute promise with product.

“Ah, it’s only the first game of the league. I’m not going to worry too much about it,” McGeeney said.

“I’m disappointed with the result but the players played well. In fairness to them, even when they went a goal down they still pushed on and there were even a couple of penalty opportunities near the end.”