eircom National League First Division

Date	28/12/2002
Score (Blues First)	1 - 1
Venue	Station Road, Newbridge
Kick Off	7.45pm
Attendance	1,000
Weather	dry but cold
Referee	D Deady
Goal Scorers	Murphy
Cards	Yellow: Fitzgerald, Byrne, Sullivan
Pitch	Soft

A trip to Newbridge over the Christmas period is what the Jimmy McGeough's Blue and White army had to look forward too, but this was going to be a tough game as the Throughbreads were on a good run of late and are now pushing for a playoff place.

The supporters bus arrived at 6.40pm and was ecorted into the ground as they thought it was the team, after being told otherwise, we still got let in the gate as the supporters went to the ticket office. The first moment of christmas comedy occurred when the the one ticket seller have no light and couldn't tell the difference between a €10 note and €20 in the ticket office. He then handed out too many tickets as they were all stuck together. Then to make us laugh more Eddie Foley assistant referee asked us if we knew where the team were? With 45 minutes to go before kick off we decided to pick supporters out to play for the Blues as the team bus had left half an hour before us. After getting a handy squad together in the bar, to our disappointment we heard the team had arrived after spending some time looking for the ground in Kildare Town. Thank God christmas only comes around once a year.

After his brilliant second half display against Galway United last week Wayne Fitzgerald was named in the starting eleven instead of Kevin Waters. As the team lined up, gus was going to play wide on the left, which surprised most of the supporters as we felt Kevin O'Brien would be better suited out wide with Gus in the middle. In the first half it was easy to tell which team were top of the League, as the blues took the game to the hosts, with our passing and movement way too much for them to deal with. A great move and a great finish gave us the lead at half time as Vinny and Darryl combined well with the later striking a shot high into the roof of the net from 18 yards. This lead was fully deserved and we could have scored 3 more in the pening 45 minutes. A bunch of County supporters stood beside us during the half and it made me laugh when one of them shouted, "get the ball on the ground and play it around." I asked them "When ever did you see a team managed by Dermot Keely play football on the ground?"

the second half should have been a stroll, but kildare's tactics got worse, evertime a defender got the ball he either kicked it the length of the pitch or booted it out over the sideline. The also became very physical and in this department we could not live with them. Our game went to pieces, we lost our shape and our way of playing. Kildare equalised with 12 minutes to go and even the strongest Blues fan couldn't argue that they didn't deserve it. We just died and our midfielders and defenders dropped so deep it was hard to believe. We surived the last 10 minutes to grab a share of the spoils and another point nearer the League title.