IN this week’s Kildare Nationalist, in your shops now or on line at www.kildare-nationalist.ie, we feature an interview with Kildare manager, Glenn Ryan, in which he reflects on the Leinster SFC semi final and the All success of the U20’s and looks forward to the All Ireland series starting with the Round 1 match against Sligo on Sunday. 

By Pat Costello

GLENN Ryan and his management team have had time to reflect on their performance against Dublin in the Leinster semi final and while many in the county were satisfied with the performance the ever competitive Round Towers man was looking for a lot more when the Kildare Nationalist caught up with him over the weekend after Kildare’s All Ireland series Group was finalised following Dublin’s victory over Louth in the Leinster Final.

Kildare manager, Glenn Ryan Photo: Sean Brilly

“It’s wins that we are looking for and we were very disappointed that we didn’t get one against Dublin,” the Manager declared. Nor was he taking any solace from the performance which saw the Lilywhites run the Dubs to two points in Croke Park. “I wouldn’t say there was satisfaction. It was good to see that the players produced some of the stuff that they are capable of but ultimately the players want to try and win and that’s the next step for us, to try and get performances that will produce wins,” he added.

Kildare will travel to Markievicz Park on Sunday to take on Connacht finalists, Sligo at 2.30pm with Cavan man, Joe McQuillan in the middle before “hosting” Leinster Champions, Dublin and facing Roscommon at a neutral venue but the manager wasn’t looking beyond Sunday’s game out West.

“They’re all very differing games but all are games that will bring their own challenges. Our first game up is Sligo and again we won’t be looking any further than that. Sligo would have been disappointed with the scoreline (in the Connacht Final) because early on they would have been very competitive and they brought the game to Galway,” he explained.

“That came on the back of a very good League campaign. They were very comprehensive winners in that League and proved that they were far the best side in the Division. That carried an amount of pressure on their shoulders going into the two games that they had to get to the Provincial Final but they carried that without any hassle at all and they produced two fine performances.”

“I’m sure they will be looking to the great support they had down in Breffni to get behind them in Markievicz Park next week,” Glenn added

Preparations will continue for Kildare throughout the week with no news of any injuries. “Hopefully we’ll get through the week as things can change so quickly and you don’t like to look too far down the line.”

“It was important to get back into training. It was a funny feeling coming out of Dublin game, a dangerous feeling, as many people in the county were satisfied with the performance that we put up but at the same time ultimately we didn’t win and we can’t take our eyes off that,” the manager warned.

As the county continues to bask in the glory of the U20’s All Ireland success Glenn Ryan was keen to praise all those involved in that success. “It was a brilliant success for all involved particularly for Brian Flanagan who has put a huge amount of work in over the last three years. There has been steady progression getting to the All Ireland Final last year and ultimately winning it this year. It’s a huge platform that it provides for Kildare teams into the future by bringing fellas through with the right skill and the right attitude and now with a winning mentality.”

On the possibility of bringing some of the U20’s into the senior set up for the All Ireland series, Glenn Ryan had this to say, “I wouldn’t even be thinking of that yet. I’ll be letting them enjoy the win and well then sit down with Brian and we’ll go through things with him and he will have a big input into anything that we do going forward.”

As can be seen from the table below, Sligo won the last meeting between the sides in 2016 so we asked if a win in the opening game on Sunday was vital. “They are all vital wins so we’ll prepare ourselves as best we can and prepare ourselves to try and win the game and see after that,” Glenn concluded.

Kildare’s Full Record v Sligo