Parking the bus made no difference to Kildare

June 29, 2015

The scoreboard says it all for Kildare manager Jason Ryan. INPHO

Jason Ryan admitted that Kildare's defensive tactics failed miserably against Dublin.

The Lilywhites' best-laid plans were ripped to shreds when they conceded two early goals as the rampant Dubs went on to post 5-18 in a 19-point victory.

"At certain stages during the game, we thought we had the bus parked," the Kildare manager said.

"That's the reality. I'd say if we had snapshots of the first and second halves there were quite a few Kildare players inside the 45-metre line. We aimed to have two, maybe three forwards in the Dublin half for as much of the game as we possibly could so that still gives us 11 players in a defensive position, 12 including the goalkeeper.

"In the first half, our ability to deal with the runs off Ciaran Kilkenny; we weren't as tight on him as we needed to be. There was insufficient contact."

Ryan was disappointed that Kildare didn't make better use of their possession.

"We had 20 attacks inside their '45' in the second half. They had 20 attacks inside our '45'," he pointed out.

"We had more attacks inside their '45' than they had inside ours in the first half. It's just making better selections. It wasn't that Dublin were diving across, making fantastic blocks. Some of our handling and shot selection wasn't quite as good as it needs to be."


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