Kerry's Fitzmaurice over the February blues

Prior to yesterday Eamonn Fitzmaurice knew what it was like to guide Kerry teams to semi-final victories in the months of July and September, but he had never known the feeling that came with county successes in February.

It was an anomaly the Kingdom manager buried yesterday in Celtic Park with a seven-point win that put to bed a series of past defeats to Dublin (twice), Mayo and Derry and he greeted the fact with a good-natured chuckle.

The consequences are not to be taken lightly though. Kerry lost their first four league games in 2013 and their opening three last year. They now go into a three-week break without the pressure such streaks can generate.

“It is (good), it is,” he admitted. “From the point of view we’ve Dublin coming in three weeks’ time, I saw the second-half of that game (against Donegal) and it seemed to be a really intense game the Dubs were up for and played well. If we were beaten today, it wouldn’t change anything we do over the next couple of weeks, but you’d just be digging a small bit whereas after winning today you’d be in good form.”

Points aren’t the only means by which games are appraised, of course. Managers like to see signs of progress in their charges as the season’s takes flight and Fitzmaurice and everyone else could divine clear improvement since the opening defeat to Mayo.

“There was a big difference. We’d a tough game last weekend. Mayo were a good bit down the line and you could see they prepared well, and they played well. So that game stood to us, gave us great context for training this week. We played UCC in a challenge on Tuesday and it was a great workout, we got our forward chemistry going a bit better again. We had a good session Thursday and the lads worked hard and played better today.”

Fitzmaurice agreed the sending-off of Mark Lynch looked harsh (though he added that the referee was perfectly placed to make the decision) and Brian McIver had no doubt but justice turned its back on Derry at that point. “At a stage when we had clawed it back to maybe a few points we didn’t take a few chances and then the sending-off really put the cat among the pigeons and finished us off,” he said.

“The ref gave it for a high elbow tackle which, to me, wasn’t that much different to one of the tackles earlier on a Kerryman got a yellow over. It’s his call.”