Feely enjoying home comforts of St Conleth's Park

The Lilies will host Westmeath there tomorrow evening in the Leinster SFC quarter-finals, Kildare's first Championship game in Newbridge since 1995.

Fri, 11 Apr, 2025 - 07:20

Paul Keane

Kildare captain Kevin Feely says he's been surprised by just how much they've enjoyed their home comforts at the redeveloped Cedral St Conleth's Park.

The Lilies will host Westmeath there tomorrow evening in the Leinster SFC quarter-finals.

It'll be Kildare's first Championship game in Newbridge since 1995, and only their second since 1989, though the more significant stat relates to just how well they're playing there.

Kildare have won all three competitive games that they've played at the 15,000 capacity ground since last winter's reopening following an EUR18m overhaul, beating Fermanagh, Laois and Antrim in the league.

"(It's made) a bigger difference than I thought it would actually," said experienced midfielder Feely. "The very first game we played there, against Galway, it was a challenge match and it was the most pleasant surprise actually with the atmosphere, the size of the crowd that was there, the real sense of pride that it seemed like every player felt in having the facilities that we now have, the dressing-rooms and the new stand and the bigger pitch.

"It was a bigger sense of pride than I thought it would be and that carried over into the league and it definitely seemed to give us that little bit of an extra energy boost in the league games. Undoubtedly our three home games were our three best performances in the league, so it's been huge for us I think."

Former manager Jack O'Connor complained about the 'tightness' of the pitch in Newbridge in the past, though the playing surface was extended as part of the redevelopment.

"It lends itself to taking advantage of the new rules a little bit better in terms of having more space, less congestion for the forward line, less congestion for kick-outs and stuff like that," said Feely of the expansion.

"It's definitely helped in that regard. Pitch-wise, the surface has always been brilliant at St Conleth's Park and that's no different with the new pitch.

"But yeah, you kind of don't feel like you're playing in a uniquely small venue anymore, which was the case beforehand. And you knew when we'd go to places like Croke Park, we could get a little bit exposed. But that's not the case anymore."

Mind you, Kildare did suffer a surprise defeat to Offaly on their most recent visit to Croke Park for last month's Division 3 league final. They still secured promotion to Division 2, ironically swapping places with Championship opponents Westmeath who were relegated to Division 3.

"You can't come away from either of the two Offaly games we played and not admit that Offaly were the better team in both of those games," said Feely. "But having analysed them, you look at our conversion rates and the number of shots we're getting away, which is really high, compared to our conversion rate which is really low, and it's very easy to see why we lost both of those games.

"It was a similar story against Clare so hopefully those are things that we can tidy up. In general, the goal was absolutely to get promoted and that's been done."