Kildare defender Emmet Bolton fears a provincial final defeat backlash from Derry when the sides meet in the fourth round qualifier at Croke Park this Saturday.
Bolton said: “You’re coming up against a team that will give you a backlash after losing the Ulster final.”
Derry will have had just six days to get over their defeat to Donegal in Sunday’s Ulster final.
Despite the quick turnaround for the Ulster side, Bolton feels that they will still be a dangerous opponent come Saturday: “They’ll regroup over the next six days and will give us a backlash. I’d be expecting that.”
The Lillies are in a rich vein of form but have come in for criticism for starting slowly in games. Bolton is tetchy about it: “To be fair, we’re actually playing well in games as well.
“We’re creating a lot of chances early on as well, it’s just that we’re not taking them. Against Meath we maybe had a couple of goal chances in the first half and had a couple of bad wides as well.”
Kildare hold the record when it comes to qualifiers with 10 wins and one draw, but Bolton thinks they can still improve: “We need to improve all over but we’ll do it.
“I thought we coped extremely well with Meath’s full-forward line. Mick Aindriu MacLochlainn and Hugh McGrillen did a fine job for us but we probably didn’t break out of defence at pace enough.”