By John Harrington

Kerry football team manager, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, admits his team are fighting for their Championship lives after today’s defeat to Galway in Phase 1 of the All-Ireland SFC Quarter-Finals.

It doesn’t get any easier from here though. A trip to Clones to face Monaghan next Sunday is a daunting one, and Fitzmaurice knows his team have huge room for improvement.

“We were well off it today but we’re still in the Championship,” said Fitzmaurice after the match.

“We’ve a tough game now next weekend up in Clones and we’re going up there, we’re fighting for our lives and we’ll have to bring everything we have but, you know, I suppose the positive thing from our point of view is that we’re still in the Championship.

“If this was the old system of an All-Ireland quarter-final knockout and we brought that level of performance today, that’s it, we’re gone, we’re out and we’re finished so we have another chance.

“We have another chance next weekend but we need to improve 100%.”

Fitzmaurice admitted his team ‘didn’t turn up’ against Galway, ‘lost all the battles’ and were ‘a yard off the pace’.

But he had no easy answers as to why they were so poor on the day.

“I don’t, I don’t,” he said. “Look, it’s something we’re going to have to look at over the next day or two to make sure that we’re at the pitch next weekend. I think the game will bring us on a good bit.

“But look, within the group, we’re well aware, I keep saying it, that we’re a work in progress.

“We have a lot of changes made. We’re trying to go in a direction but when you’re doing that sometimes you’re going to get caught with a knockout and we did today.

“We just played a team that were a bit further down the line than us, were a bit more streetwise and played better than us and deserved the win so, yeah, we’ve to figure out why that was the case and like I said, there’s no time for feeling sorry for ourselves now, which the big thing.

“We look to next weekend straight away and we look to try and improve.”