Brian Dowling 'absolutely thrilled' as Kildare hurlers ensure place in Division 1B for next year

“Absolutely thrilled to get the win. Getting six points on the board secures our safety and even for the lads to be mathematically in with a chance of getting to a league final in the last round is a brilliant place to be. A lot of things have to happen for that but to even just be in with a chance it just shows how far the group have come,” the words of Kildare manager Brian Dowling after his side’s win over Carlow secured their place in Allianz Hurling League Division 1B for 2027.

“It probably wasn’t our best performance, I thought at times we were sloppy but to get the victory was the main thing coming here today. Three weeks on the trot is not easy for any team, especially when you are travelling away to Down last week and being down a couple of bodies. Just thrilled that we are safe for next year.”

Against Carlow, Kildare replicated their surge after half-time against Down with Cathal Dowling’s goal in Fontenoy Park giving The Lilies a spring board to kick on. This time out it was goals from Daire Guerin and soon after Cathal McCabe that put the men in white out of sight after the restart, but the Kildare boss wasn’t fully pleased with how his team performed from that point on as their lead slowly fell away.

Dowling said, “We dropped our standards a bit, even in the first half I thought there was more in us. We targeted it at half-time to go at Carlow, we thought there were goal chances there but you have to make hard runs and that is what Daire Guerin did and (produced) a brilliant finish for the goal. It is great to have different lads popping up with the goals on different days, it is not just one lad each time and that is what you need. When you are playing against good teams you need other people standing up and it is great to see.”

READ FULL REPORT: Kildare convincingly secure Division 1B safety with big win over Carlow

Kildare eased to their third victory in Division 1B against Carlow without the help of Cathal Dowling (injured) and Jack Sheridan (suspended) but showed the strength of their squad with Tim Ryan and James Dolan filling in superbly.

The manager added, “There are loads of lads training there and everyone wants to get minutes. At times you are forced into making changes, but it was great to see Tim Ryan starting his first league game. It was very disappointing that Jack wasn’t on the field with us today and Cathal picking up an injury the last day. He is a huge loss and you have James Burke and Jack Travers still out as well and good to see Darragh Melville back today because we have been without him for a while. We know when it comes to the Leinster Championship we are going to need absolutely everybody, so the physio is going to be busy over the next couple of weeks.”