We were our own worse enemy says Kildare manager after McDonagh defeat

All you had to do was look at Kildare hurling manager's (Brian Dowling) face, and without even asking a question, you could see the disappointment following his side's one point defeat to Kerry in the Joe McDonagh Cup opener.

“We came here to win, at home, thought we had enough to win it, especially in the second half, went up four points, twice, they pulled us back, we got four up again and not to see it out is extremely disappointing, a very disappointing start, we wanted to win today and now we want to move on from it as quick as we can.”

The manager said that he thought “we were our own worse enemy to be honest, I thought we left a lot of ball behind us, our first touch, our fumbling, we left a lot of scores behind us, they obviously got a goal, a long delivery in and they got a goal from it, I felt for the first twenty-five minutes or so we were very poor, the worst we played all year but we got it back level before half time, went a point down by half-time, we really wanted to push on in the second half and we did that, to be honest, but we didn't get the job done.”

Looking back on the game Brian said that when they went four points up they missed the opportunity to make it five or six clear, “if we had got that I felt we would have saw it out but disappointing not to get over the line.”

The manager said that he could not fault the lads “they are putting in a huge effort the whole time, we just have to find a way to win these big games in tight moments, that's what this team needs to do, jump that hurdle, get on to the next step, get a Joe McDonagh win and push on from there.”

Asked about the upcoming games Dowling said, “there are no easy games, see the fixtures, every game is tough, you see teams that have been in the Liam McCarthy in the last couple of years; look, these lads want to play Joe McDonagh, want to be this level, want to test themselves, we can't be feeling sorry for ourselves, we know there are good teams here and we are going to have to be at our best to beat any of them, so we have to just move on and get that victory.”

On the injuries the manager said he hoped to have both Cathal Dowling and Killian Harrington will be back for Saturday, adding, “both were just short today but you risk someone today and they are gone and we had a few lads today that were patched-up, but we have to move on, not going to use that for an excuse today.”

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