Kildare boss Brian Flanagan hailed his side’s character after they edged out Westmeath on Saturday night to set up a Leinster SFC semi-final against Louth.

Goals in either half from Alex Beirne and David Hyland proved decisive as the Lilywhites marked their first home game in the Leinster SFC in 30 years with a two-point win at the redeveloped St Conleth’s Park.

“Relief and pride are the two overriding emotions,” Flanagan said afterwards.

“We wanted to win tonight, we wanted to give the people of Kildare a night like this, we wanted to do it for ourselves as much as anything because we’ve had an interesting couple of weeks leading into it.

“They say you learn a lot more in defeat and that’s fine but sooner or later you have to step up and tonight we did step up and I do think, with 15 or 20 minutes to go, there was just a refusal to accept defeat and lads all over the field, to the boys who came off the bench, just went for it and they did everything they possibly could to get us the victory and I’m delighted we did, so a lot of pride in the boys and then relief that we get to move on here.”

The Johnstownbridge man also welcomed the Leinster Council’s decision to move all of their SFC games outside of the final to provincial venues.

“There’s no two ways about it, that was a savage atmosphere there this evening,” he enthused.

“Any of these regional venues you go to, Tullamore, Páirc Tailteann, Portlaoise and play Leinster Championship football in them, they are going to be close to packed. You saw that here tonight, you saw the way the players feed off it, you hear the noise when there’s a score kicked. It’s an unbelievable feeling, and it’s one you don’t get in a half empty Croke Park.”

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