Laois need complete performance to overcome Kildare, says Donie Kingston

Sharpshooter Donie Kingston thinks Laois will need to register a 70-minute performance to get past Kildare in Saturday’s Leinster championship replay.

Kingston, 24, was the stand-out performer at O’Connor Park last weekend, but a slack last five minutes allowed Kildare to overturn a three-point deficit and force the draw.

A promising Division 2 league campaign, where Laois challenged for promotion and Kildare were relegated, meant Tomás Ó Flatharta’s side were highly fancied to progress into a provincial semi-final against Dublin.

However, despite Kingston’s eight points, Laois fell short and the two sides must lock horns again this weekend.

The Arles Killeen man thinks there is no room for ponderous play and, if they sniff victory again, they must take it.

“We need to follow through and play for the full 70 minutes,” he said. “We had good spells and we let them back into it. It was that game where we would score three points and they would score three points. Maybe, if we just upped it a bit and got on a bit of a run and we tried to keep them out a bit better, we might have held on. You can never rest on your laurels especially in the championship. We will have to play until the end the next day, certainly.”

The Kingston clan play their club football a few miles from the Kildare border, so he is aware of the importance of bragging rights to the Laois faithful.

Also on the back of a spirited win for the hurlers against neighbours Offaly, Kingston is primed for another fiery encounter with the Lilywhites.

“Championship is a different level, altogether, no matter who you play, but we are playing our near neighbours and there is always going to be that bit of a bite, and there certainly was,” he said.

“You saw in the second half, the tackling and everything that went in was immense, really. We will reshuffle and we will refocus and we will look at where we went wrong and where we went right and, hopefully, the next day we will be able to come out on top.

“Kildare had a bad league, but you wouldn’t think that from the way they were playing. It shows you can take a lot of things from the league, but it will never live up to championship.”