Kerry boss Jack O’Connor rues ‘butchered’ chances, Mickey Harte hails Glen trio
27 January 2024; Sean O'Shea of Kerry slips as he takes a free in the final minutes of the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Kerry and Derry at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, Kerry. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Manager Jack O’Connor says that Kerry’s one-point home defeat to promoted Derry felt like a ‘bad loss’ – especially with the number of goal-scoring chances the Kingdom missed in the second half in Tralee.
O’Connor will take his side to Clones to face a buoyant Monaghan next Sunday and will mull over a possible involvement for the Clifford brothers as the Kingdom look to avoid back-to-back opening League defeats.
First, though, they will have to swallow their first opening night League loss at home since 2015 and enough blown second-half chances to take at least a point.
“You'd have to say on the balance we probably deserved something out of the game,” O’Connor said. “Even if we got a point out of it, it wouldn't be the worst result in the world, but it feels, right now, like a bad loss. I'm not sure how many goal chances we butchered there in the second half, but we certainly left two after us, if not a third.
“However I am very proud of the way the boys played in the second half, I thought we really went after the game, we really went after their kickout. Even when we lost the kickout, we still stayed up there and pressed high and forced turnovers. You'd have to say that the boys emptied the tank in a big way in the second half and very happy about that.
“I thought we were a bit unlucky. Seanie (O’Shea)'s 45, on another night he'd stroke that over but he just slipped as he was kicking it and that probably would have been the game right there. Everybody's going gung-ho to get points early on and while you have to be happy with the performance, we are disappointed not to get something out of it.”
The Kerry manager accepted his young side lacked a bit of poise in the final stages. “Maybe we were a little bit frantic - when you're behind, you're chasing it and maybe you're not as composed as you'd like to be. But look that'll come in time, better conditions, conditions were tough out there, so it's not easy be foot perfect.”
Delighted Derry boss Mickey Harte said the way his side played without any inferiority complex – underlined by their response to Kerry’s two second half goals – was instructive.
“Okay, we knew that Kerry were missing key figures in their team, game-winning people, but that didn't matter. We had to deal with what we had to deal with. There were still lots of very good players to be dealt with. It was important that our boys gave an A-game performance and I think they did that, considering the elements and everything else and considering how difficult we seemed to think it was to get frees.
"On many occasions we felt we were worth a whistle or two and it didn't come. It's difficult when you have to play through that in a very intense game like this. But fair play to the players. They hung in there and they never gave up."
On the involvement of three All-Ireland-winning Glen players, Harte explained: "We always left it up to them. We didn't interfere with their run-in to the All-Ireland. We never asked anything of them. We let them focus totally on the Club Championship, which went to the ultimate for them. When it was finished, we let them enjoy a night or two. We just had a chat with them if they could come back and be with us, even just to integrate as part of the group again. They did that on Wednesday night on their own for a while and then they joined us on Thursday night again.
"We left it entirely up to them. They were happy to put themselves forward and be considered for selection. I think it's a great credit to them, given what they've put through over the last two years, not just this year. To go into a game of this high altitude, they deserve great credit for just even putting themselves forward for it."
Harte added: "We considered everything and we discussed it with them. I'm not inside their heads. I can only talk to them. They know what's inside their heads and inside their bodies and they know what they're prepared to do. Nobody forced them to do anything. The door was open for them to decline or come in and they decided to come in.
"These first two games are important, especially when you're a new team into Division 1. Early points are critical and if you don't get early points, then there's a week's break and before you know it you're a month into the National League and you're still hunting for points. That puts you in a position where you're under pressure right away before the league has even got to the halfway stage.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
