Kildare manager Cian O'Neill admits that they are close to being a top eight team, but not close enough.

The Lilywhites' relegation to Division 2 was confirmed following their sixth straight defeat in the campaign when Kerry came out on top in last Saturday night's encounter.

Despite losing all games in the campaign so far, there has been positives for Kildare to take from their short time in Division One as they were more than competitive in the majority of their games.

However, O'Neill admits to the Leinster Leader that it is a step backwards for his charges as their aspirations to be considered one of the top teams in the country must take a back seat for the time being.

"Defeat is disappointing, but it is not demoralising. I don't want to shy away from the fact that we have had a very disappointing league," stated the Kildare boss.

"Up to last week (against Mayo) we have been very competitive in every game we played, ultimately we were not good enough but we were competitive as we were again against Kerry but we are just not performing at the level to win these games; we are close to it but we are not close enough and that is the big disappointment."

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