by John Fallon

Former Galway and Kildare defender John Divilly believes that all the pressure is on the Lilywhites when the sides clash for the second time in eight days in Sunday's Aliianz League Division 2 final.

Divilly, centre-back when Galway won the 1998 All-Ireland by defeating Kildare in the final, spent a season with the Lilywhites after moving to live in Leixlip.

He player his club football for Leixlip for six years before finishing out his career with his native Kilkerrin-Clonberne in Galway and is uniquely positioned to assess both counties heading into Sunday's Croke Park showdown.

"In a way both sides are in bonus territory as promotion would have been the primary aim for both Galway and Kildare.

"But winning a title for either of them in Croke Park would have to be seen as a big boost. It will be a great way to wrap up a successful for one of them heading into the championship.

"I think the pressure is on Kildare. They sent a shadow side to Pearse Stadium last Sunday and ran Galway to a point so you'd imaginea full-strength side will be under pressure to push on from there," said Divilly.

He joined Kildare for the 2006-07 season following an invitation from manager John Crofton and having coached in Leixlip for three seasons, in addition to taking charge of NUI Maynooth and more recently UCD in the Sigerson Cup, he is bang up to date on where Kildare football is at the moment.

But he also keeps a close eye on his native county, not least as his Kilkerrin-Clonberne clubman Shane Walsh is spearheading Galway's charge for silverware.

"I played for a few years with Shane and managed him for a time and he has always been a class player with loads to offer. He's an exciting footballer.

"Galway now have another successful U-21 team coming through and while it remains to be seen how many of them might feature on Sunday, it augurs well for the county.

"But Kildare are now after achieving successive promotions and Cian O'Neill has done a great job with them. Up to last Sunday he more or less stuck with the same 15 throughout but I suppose he has a few selection headaches this week.

"I just feel Galway are going into this final with less pressure on them and that could be decisive, but it's great to see the two of them in Croke Park again in a final and I'm looking forward to it," added Divilly.

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