Jack O’Connor left to rue ‘soft’ goal
Jack O’Connor didn’t feel like discussing at length Kerry’s second All-Ireland semi-final loss in a row.
Asked about the quality of ball Kildare were able to feed into their full-forward line, he was to the point before walking off.
“Look lads, Kildare are a good side. There was a point in it at the end after we gave away a soft goal and missed three or four very scoreable frees in the second-half.
“I think that’s the story of the game. Write that.”
It was a point he reiterated in just over two minutes of questions.
“We’re awful disappointed. We felt we’d come back strong in the second half because there was a good breeze and we thought we might have the legs on Kildare late on, but the goal put the kibosh on us really. And such a soft goal as well.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with the goal and the few frees,” he added.
O’Connor praised his side’s effort — “we died with our boots on” — and questioned a late Kildare free, although he admitted the major fault was with the missed chances.
“We got it back to a point and even the last kick-out went out over the sideline but, for some reason, the referee decided to give a free, even though the ball was gone ten yards over the sideline.
“Having said that, we missed too much.”
