Kildare and Wexford meet this Saturday in Croke Park in the Leinster Football Championship Quarter-Finals; ahead of the game we hear from Wexford footballer Brian Malone and Kildare's Eoin Doyle, while Kildare manager Cian O'Neill outlines that his side will be doing everything to advance to the Semi-Finals of the Leinster Championship. Tickets for Saturday's game in Croke Park are available for purchase from selected SuperValu and Centra stores nationwide, as well as from www.GAA.ie/tickets and from outlets on matchday.
Eager to generate momentum Kildare manager Cian O'Neill is completely aware of the threat Wexford carry ahead of Saturday’s Leinster Senior Football quarter-final at Croke Park.
O’Neill admits that Kildare, beaten in the Allianz Football League Division Three decider by Clare, are firmly focused on the clash with David Power’s outfit.
“Wexford are a dangerous team, absolutely, no doubt they will be disappointed not to have come out of Division Four,” O’Neill told GAA.ie.
“Similar to how we were disappointed not to have won the Division Three Final so you'll have two teams coming into the match with a point to prove. They'll have a point to prove to themselves and to the supporters in the county. So it is a game we will really prepare for.
“On any one day if you are anyway off it you could be caught. I'm sure Jim Gavin would say the same from a Dublin perspective and Eamonn Fitzmaurice in Kerry as well, the top two teams in the country. I'm sure David will have Wexford prepared to the top level so we are looking forward to it, I'm excited actually.”
There were glimpses of Kildare’s ability in the Clare contest at GAA headquarters, but lapses in concentration proved costly according to O’Neill. “It was disappointing because the players put themselves in good positions both in the first and second half to close out the match, to win it,” O’Neill said.
“To concede a goal late in the first half was a disappointment, but then to do it again in the second half was a huge disappointment.
Wexford manager David Power.
“The positive thing looking back at it in analysing it in the cold light of day, a lot of our errors were unforced. They are things we can rectify pretty quickly, there were no major systematic errors there that you'd be worried about.
“So it is up to us as a management and the players as a group to make sure those mistakes don't happen again. We have to go through why they happened and work on that at training. I think sometimes a defeat like that, even though it was for national silverware, can really guide you and inspire you going forward in terms of what is needed.”
With promotion accomplished O’Neill wants Kildare to make a summer impact now. “When you are in Division Three you are obviously there for a reason because it is over the course of seven matches,” O’Neill reflected.
“It didn't just happen in a Championship type format so for me the key thing was to be rational with our objectives. Promotion was something we really wanted. To win the Division would have been a bonus, I'm disappointed we didn't, but we move on.
"In the Championship you can really only take it one game at a time. We've seen some interesting things in sport in the last number of weeks and months in terms of shocks, no more than Leicester claiming the title.
“It just goes to show you what can happen when you've a really spirited group and a good management set-up when all merges into huge success. I'd like to think that if we do our business in the first round we would be competitive going into the semi-finals. Ultimately you'd expect Dublin, but you don't know in Championship, to be in a Leinster final if we were fortunate enough to get there.” Kildare’s 2016 journey starts on Saturday.
