Dowling 'immensely proud' of his Kildare side after close-run battle with Clare

“Immensely proud of the lads. We have to be realistic in what we are coming up against; Clare are an unbelievable team. Most of the Kildare lads were at the All-Ireland final (2024) together and we struggled to win the Christy Ring that year and here we are, after they won an All-Ireland, competing with them and taking them down the home stretch and only four points (in it),” the words of Brian Dowling after his Kildare side’s defeat to Clare in Allianz Hurling League Division 1B.

“I am just delighted we put in a big performance because we were disappointed against Dublin that we didn’t perform the way we wanted. We were playing a good team and we put it up to them and that is huge for the group.”

It was clear from first whistle to last that The Lilies were not overawed by the occasion, opposition or the travelling saffron and blues. It was an incredible display of internal belief from Kildare and, despite the loss, the hope is that this showing will bolster their confidence ahead of two crucial games in the next couple of weeks.

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Dowling added, “We have huge respect for them (Clare), you have household names everywhere you look but you can’t stand and admire them. For 70 minutes you have to go toe-to-toe, if you give them half an inch, if you give Tony Kelly any breathing space (you’re in trouble). He got some wonderful scores today, but you can’t stop them all, someone will step up for them.

“Clare never really pulled away from us, which is great, they never really had a patch where they blew us away. We always kept hanging in there and we’re a little disappointed that we didn’t get a little bit closer because we left a couple of scores behind but look it is something to build on for the next few weeks.”

The Lilies have two huge fixtures coming in consecutive weeks with an away clash with Down coming on Sunday, March 1 before a home fixture with Carlow on Sunday, March 8. These next two games will decide who stays up and who goes down in Division 1B. 

The Kildare boss concluded, “We have a massive, massive game now against Down. That’s the one, we have been waiting for that. It is a huge game, we have to try and stay in this division. There is no point in putting in performances like that and going back down to Division 2 next year. We have to keep building on this. The lads now have to get their bodies right, I’m sure they are tired and sore after that but a huge game now away to Down. We haven’t had good results there the last two years.”

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