Longford offer Kerry a great chance to claim first home win
Kerry FC v Longford Town
UNBEATEN in five – six if you include the Munster Senior Cup – Kerry FC are in the richest vein of form in their short existence.
Self-evidently, Conor McCarthy’s men are proving a most difficult combination to break down, in the top half of the table for goals conceded, albeit that they’re bottom of the pile for goals scored, even behind sides with fewer games played.
What’s stood out most about the Kingdom of late is their resilience. In Belfield on Monday evening they looked in all sorts of bother in the first half, right up until they conceded that goal to UCD’s Ciaran Behan.
Thereafter McCarthy’s men got down to business, put the students on the back foot and fought their way back to parity. This time last year had Kerry FC conceded a goal way you’d worry for them. Instead of crumbling, however, this Kerry FC 2.0 are rock solid.
“Yeah probably a game of two halves again, but in that first half just couldn’t get going,” McCarthy said of the game with UCD.
“It might have been the travel and the two games in three days, but the second half the response was good, a good reaction so to get a point we can’t complain really.
“The reaction was very good from the players, they came out fighting in the second half having been a good down and, like that, could have nicked it, but can’t really complain in the end.
“They’re [UCD] a good side and have a lot of good technical players that if you give them that bit of space they’ll hurt you, so I thought in the second half when we squeezed on a bit we caused a bit more problems.”
Still for all the resilience, and the fine run of five draws in-a-row, there’s a real necessity to start turning some of those draws into wins. The Kingdom still to register a win in the league this season.
“Look there’s steps to getting winning games,” McCarthy explained.
“Last year we were just finding our feet then we got to the stage where we were competitive and really competitive and losing games. Now we’re at the stage where we’re competitive and not losing games so the next step is [to win]. It might be a big one [a big step], but it will turn. I’ve no doubts.
“The progress is good and it’ll be our turn sooner rather than later.” Could that win arrive as soon as this Friday evening? Longford Town are coming calling to Mounthawk Park and aren’t in great form at all, probably not helped by a number of their games being postponed in the earlier part of the season. With the midlands currently club propping up the table, it’s maybe not totally unfair to imagine that this probably represents as good a chance for the Kingdom to get over the line for the first time this season and for the first time ever on home soil.
McCarthy, though, is hitting a note of caution, acknowledging that the Town can be a dangerous opposition, despite their unpromising start to the campaign.
“Longford probably haven’t started as well as they’d like,” the Killarney man noted.
“But they’ll be looking at that fixture as a way to kick-start their season as well so I’m sure it’ll be a tough game, no doubt it’ll be a tough game so it’s a game we’ll have to be at 100% for and, hopefully, if we can do that we’ll turn that draw into a win on Friday night.” Verdict: Kerry FC