Lots at stake, for both Kildare and Offaly, in derby showdown

Five games gone and two to go in this season's Allianz Football League, Division 3.

Kildare were installed as overwhelming favourites before a ball was kicked in anger and in their opening game, at home in Cedral St Conleth's Park, they opened impressively against Fermanagh under lights.

Followed that up with a tricky game away to Sligo, another victory and The Lilies were on their way.
And it got better.

Laois were next up, albeit at home, again under lights but the expected big challenge from the neighboutrs never materialised with the home side winning comfortably.

A win over Leitrim and Kildare were four wins from four and firmly on course.

Next up an away game against Clare, always a tricky one playing in Cusack Park and it proved just that when trailing by six points at half-time, they (Kildare) fought back to take the lead, lose the lead, regain the lead, before looking like it would all end in a draw before Clare came with a goal in the third minute of time added on to clinch it.

A big blow to Kildare.

Maybe a wake up call?

We will have to wait and see on that one.

Now it is off to Glenisk, O'Connor Park, O'Connor Park, Tullamore and a meeting with Micky Harte's Offaly.

No doubt The Faithful boys have benefited from the former All-Ireland winning manager's magic wand as they lie in second place two points behind Kildare.

Offaly defeated Sligo in their opening game by seven points; got the better of neighbours Laois in Round 2 by a healthy five (2-19 to 1-17); hammered Antrim in Round 3 (4-19 to 0-15); lost to Fermanagh by a single point (1-13 to 3-6); before defeating Leitrim by a mere four points two weeks ago in Round 5.

The Offaly boys operated in Division 3 also last season, winning just two games (against Wicklow and Limerick) and drawing with Sligo.

They lost to Laois in the Leinster Championship (3-22 to 1-11) before losing all three games in the group stages of the Tailteann Cup, to Down, Limerick and London.

So looking at all those stats there is no doubt the improvement in this Offaly side has been eye-catching to say the very least and while losing to Fermanagh was a bit of a set-back and while they did gather the points in Ballinamore, nevertheless, they were struggling to hold out in the end but hold out they did and in this league that is what it is all about.

This division is very open now following Kildare's loss to Clare and with Clare losing to Sligo last weekend, in a back match, that result looks very much like there are three, possibly four teams chasing the two promotion spots at this stage (see table below).

There are some tasty fixtures over the final two rounds with some of the teams in contention to meet.
Round 6 fixtures: Offaly v Kildare; Laois v Clare; Leitrim v Fermanagh and Antrim v Sligo.

The final round of fixtures on Sunday 23 March, all throw-in at the same time 2 pm read: Fermanagh v Laois; Clare v Offaly; Sligo v Leitrim and Kildare v Antrim.

Kildare remain firm favourites to win the division and over whelming favourites to gain promotion but it still all to play for and Sunday's local game between great rivals, Kildare and Offaly, can see form go out the window.

While Darragh Kirwan and Kevin Flynn have not been officially ruled out as of yet, nevertheless, it is highly unlikely either will see any game time on Sunday, both are suffering from hamstring problems with possible the Naas man a little bit ahead of the Celbridge player.

It will be interesting to see what team Brian Flanagan and his backroom team come up with for this one. Up to now, and taking injuries into consideration, they have not made too many changes to their starting line-out, that may not be the case though on this occasion.

The Lilies did make an abundance of goal chances, an area of their scoring record that is not overly impressive it has to be said.

However, looking back on that Clare game, one has to wonder, particularly in the opening half, despite out-played in many areas of the field, they did carve out goal chances, one has to wonder that while players went for goal some, in fact most, were not really goal scoring opportunities; not clear-cut chances; some should have been punched over.

No doubt the decision making at times, leaves much to be desired and certainly requires some improvement, particularly against Clare but on the plus side The Lilies did show plenty of spirit, after going in at the break six down, they fought back well in the second half to take the lead and it has to be said, were somewhat unlucky not to hold out for, at the very least, a draw.

Midfield is another area that requires some attention, especially with the new rules, some of these new rules will now change for the last two rounds, in particular the 3x3 now becomes 4x3, with the goalkeeper counting in the '4' which means now when the keeper advances over the half-way line, an extra player must drop back inside his own half.

Clean catching around the middle we have not seen too much of in many games but when a clean catch is executed it certainly sets up a team for a quick and decisive attack.

Kildare do possess players well-capable of fielding high balls but one gets the impression, we are con-
centrating more on breaking the ball and then hoping to pick up the lose ball, which really is more or less a 50/50 option.

The 'keeper has a major role to play in this regard and while acknowledging a lot of kick-outs are being forced long, nevertheless a better variation of the restart could benefit the side; nothing easy here is well acknowledged but the odd short kick-out , or a variation of just going long would certainly be a help.

Despite the set-back against Clare, it has to be said that overall Kildare are playing well, four out of five is not bad but a win on Sunday, while maybe not absolutely vital, nevertheless would all but clinch a promotion spot, of course depending on other results.

Offaly have some decent players; wing-back Cormac Egan put in a man of the match display against Leitrim with wing forward, Cathal Flynn, not far behind him.

Cathal Flynn, leader of the attack, is by all accounts enjoying an excellent season, both he, and Cormac Egan are players coming through from the All-Ireland U20 champions of 2021 for The Faithful boys.

As reported in the local Offaly media, others to do well included Paddy Dunican whose influence was considerable while Lee Pearson and Daire McDaid did a lot of very good work in a hard working defence. Jack McEvoy had a good first half at midfield before tiring in the second half while Jordan Hayes continued his rich vein of form. Kyle Higgins, a late call up for Cillian Bourke who has a knee injury, put in a great shift, drifting out to help midfield and showing great drive.

Nevertheless the visitors will go into this game, once again, as favourites, and despite that setback in Ennis will travel the short journey to Tullamore, with confidence that they can back on to the winning trail.

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