O'Neill lauds young defenders following promising debuts against Galway on Sunday

Kildare football manager Cian O'Neill hailed the impact of some of his younger players after they stepped up to the mark and produced fine performances against Galway in the final round league game in Salthill on Sunday.

Eight players were making their first ever starts for the county(Shane McNamara, Darren Maguire, Mark Hyland, Liam Healy, Shea Ryan, Pascal Connell, Eddie Heavey and Con Kavanagh) and four of those are still playing U21 football at the moment, so running a potent Galway side who were desperate for promotion so close was a positive factor in defeat.

"We had a lot of guys there who were playing for the first time in the Kildare senior jersey, a lot of guys who made their first start, and I have to say I thought they were fantastic. It’s a good demonstration of the strength of the panel; we always knew it was there, it’s just that in the league it’s hard when every week it’s like a championship match and you can only run in six players. That’s the only reason that guys didn’t get more minutes, and today they got an opportunity and they were brilliant, full credit to them,” smiled O’Neill after the game on Sunday.

He had particular praise for the Kildare full-back line that featured Liam Healy, Mark Hyland and Darren Maguire, all players who were named in a starting team for the first time in their nascent careers.

“We had two 19-year-olds and a 22-year-old in there, and, I have to say, each one of them to a man was fantastic,” beamed O’Neill.

“If you look back at the match and look at the film you’ll see that the issue wasn’t in our full-back line at all. Even their scores that might have come from in there, a lot of them were coming from runs from deep from the Galway team, and that’s obviously something we need to look at in preparation for next week. Darren, Liam and Mark were absolutely brilliant and I’m just delighted for them because they were waiting for this opportunity and they got it today,” he continued.

While those players are unlikely to get the nod to start this Sunday's league final in Croke Park against Galway, they have proven that they can be called upon if required at any stage in the Division 2 decider.