By Cian O'Connell

Kildare captain Eoin Doyle accepts that achieving consistency is an issue the Lilywhites need to address.

The 2018 Championship illustrated Kildare's problems initially before promise was demonstrated during a fine run through the qualifiers.

Reaching the All Ireland Quarter-Final group stage proved what could be achieved according to Doyle.

"I completely agree, it’s inconsistency," Doyle says about Kildare's form.

"I don’t know why it’s not there, I don’t know what we can do to make sure it is there, all I can say is that we’re working as hard as we possibly can to put in a performance each week and that’s what we’re trying to do.

"Hopefully that bit of consistency will come over the next couple of weeks, but it’s just down to players.

"We’re being trained and coached and our backroom is preparing us in the best possible way as players.

"We need to take responsibility to make sure that in each game we’re turning up and putting in the best performance that we can."

The Carlow defeat at the outset of last summer was disappointing, but Doyle says valuable lessons were learned.

“No, you can’t write it off," Doyle states. "You have to learn from it. Carlow bet us because they were better than us on the day.

"That goes back to the inconsistency, you have to accept that they were better than us. You don’t write it off as a freak, you learn from it.

'What, as a player, as a captain, as a squad member, did I do that I could have done better? "Everyone learns from it and you make sure that you get those small bits right for the next day but you definitely don’t write it off, no."

Subsequently Kildare stitched a four match winning sequence together.

“I think definitely winning the Derry game was a big thing because we were away to Derry and it’s not an easy place to go to, you’re on the road," Doyle recalls.

"We got the win and it probably stopped the rot and then you just - it’s hard to explain, but confidence grows a small bit, the mood is a bit better and then we had a ferocious battle there with Longford in Pearse Park and to come through that in such a tight battle I think in the end by two or three points.

"I think we only took the lead in injury time or something like that if I’m correct and that brings you on another bit.

"You’re just going out in every game and just trying your best. That was no different in the Carlow game, it was no different in the Mayo game.

"You’re going out to try your best, to work as hard as you can for that Kildare jersey. Some days it works, some days it goes bad."