'By God did we step up to the plate' says Kildare boss after dramatic Leinster minor final win
Kildare manager Tommy Konstantin spoke to local media after his side were crowned Leinster Minor Football champions with a thrilling 5-3 penalty shootout win over Meath in Portlaoise
“The level of resilience the boys showed, four points down at the end of normal time, you know, to come back and draw the game and then an extra time as well, again it looked like the game possibly was getting away from us. We even referenced at half-time time, Joe (Crotty) probably would have been disappointed with the goal conceded in the first couple of minutes but he stepped up to the plate after that, making great saves, doing well on the kickouts,” the words of Kildare manager Tommy Konstantin at full-time of the Leinster Minor Football Championship final.
“There's plenty of good football teams out there and plenty of talent within our group but to win championships you have to have that bit of resilience and that bit of ability to dig your heels in and by God did we step up to the plate, so look, we're absolutely delighted. It's a huge moment for the young lads and, you know, for Kildare to win a minor and an U20 Leinster championship, it's huge and to be honest, I don't think the senior team were too far off it either bringing Westmeath to extra time and we saw what Westmeath did last week so Kildare football's in a good place and hopefully these young lads can drive on and can bring extra energy going forward.”
Not for the first time this year, after a thrilling win over Louth in the semi-final of this competition, Kildare turned the tide late and scored 1-1 in two minutes to send this game into extra-time.
Konstantin added, “It was a chaotic couple of minutes towards the end but we just had to kind of get our breath back, reset ourselves and start to maybe do a bit better on some of the things we didn't do well in the first half in terms of poor shot selection and getting turned over. We actually made some mistakes, the same mistakes again in extra time, we kind of followed the same sort of pattern but we dug in there, we got the draw, got ourselves the penalties and look, the lads scored five out of five and TG4 asked me there, did we practice penalties? No, we didn't but we knew that they're young lads, they're practicing themselves but we knew we had strong characters in the group and we trust them and look, they got the win in the end.”
An enormous element of Kildare’s turnaround was their second half substitutes who came to the fore. Amongst others, Fiachra Martin and Logan Tennyson were two of the best players on the field after their introduction and were instrumental in pushing this game into extra-time.
"Our A vs B games of training, they're ferocious and they're ferociously competitive and can go either way in terms of results sometimes as well,” laughed the Kildare boss. “Logan is a really, really talented player, he's probably disappointed not to be starting at times, different lads got in ahead of him but he's always, you know, brought a great effort, a great work rate and he's deadly accurate as well. His finish for the goal was outstanding and then to step up 30 seconds later and to kick the equalising point was huge and then he stepped up again for the penalties and we knew, he's a bit of a soccer background, I think he played for Longford Town. No better man to take the first penalty and he showed a great composure there as well.”
“We said to the group before the penalties that whatever happened, we fully trusted them and we backed them. Whatever would happen, we would stick together as a group and in fairness the lads they've worked really hard all year, they've battled all year and there's been all sorts of challenges thrown at us all year and that builds resilience in itself. They showed that bit of composure, not only composure but they backed themselves and they brought a confidence to those penalties as well and, look, we're delighted they went in.”
The structure of the Minor Championships meant that Kildare would have progressed to the All-Ireland series regardless of the result on the night, but they now move on with even more confidence following yet another gutsy showing in a dramatic win, as well having a Leinster title in their back pocket.