KILDARE’S POWER IS TOO MUCH FOR LOUTH
THE difference between playing a season in Division 1 of the Allianz National League as opposed to Division 3 – even when a team has won that league – was on display in Tullamore as Kildare overpowered Louth on their way to the Leinster semi-finals.
Kildare made a lightning start to the game, scoring the first seven points inside the opening 16 minutes. During this spell, Louth simply couldn’t cope with Kildare’s power and pace as the athleticism throughout the Lilywhites’ team shone through.
Louth, though, are no slouches and they showed in patches why they have performed so well during the last two years under the management of Mickey Harte.
They had a particularly profitable spell early in the second half when they scored three points in a row to cut Kildare’s lead to five. But Kildare were able to wrestle back control and, from the moment Kevin Feely converted a 47th-minute penalty, they remained in control.
That opening scoring salvo was led by the exciting Kildare forward line. Brian McLoughlin opened the scoring less than a minute into his first Championship start.
Jimmy Hyland and Ben McCormack added scores before Daniel Flynn, who had earlier inexplicably missed a kick from in front of the goal from 20 metres after collecting a mark, kicked a magnificent effort from near the left sideline.
By the time Paul Cribbin made it 0-10 to 0-1 in the 22nd minute, all six starting forwards were on the scoresheet from play.
It was wasn’t all one-way traffic. Mark Donnellan needed to make an early double save to deny Bevan Duffy and he was picking the ball out of his net in the 28th minute, but Liam Jackson’s effort was ruled out due to a square ball.
Kildare led 0-13 to 0-5 at halftime but Sam Mulroy and Conor Grimes were always a handful and they shared the points early in the second half between them as Harte’s team threatened a comeback.
With momentum starting to shift towards the Wee County, Kildare got back on top when Feely’s penalty found the bottom left corner of the net after Daniel Flynn had been fouled by Niall Sharkey as he was about to shoot for goal.
Darragh Kirwan then became the seventh Kildare forward on the scoresheet with almost a carbon copy of Flynn’s brilliant earlier point just seconds after replacing McLoughlin.
Mulroy replied but Kildare then landed three in a row from Cribbin, Hyland and Kirwan as the game began to slip away from Louth. Another Kildare substitute, Paddy Woodgate, became the eighth forward in white to score when he converted a 69th-minute free.
Glenn Ryan’s (above) men put the seal on the win in injury time, when Woodgate, Feely and Tony Archbold combined to present the ball on the ground to Kirwan and, with Louth goalkeeper James Califf out of position, Kirwan blasted his shot to the net via the underside of the crossbar.
Louth showed enough to suggest they could cause problems for their opponents in the qualifiers, but Kildare march into the last four of Leinster and they have enough attacking talent to worry any opponent. KILDARE: M Donnellan; M O’Grady, S Ryan, R Houlihan (M Joyce 66); T Archibold, J Murray (D Hyland 62), K Flynn; K Feely, K O’Callaghan; A Beirne (P McDermott 52), B McCormack, P Cribbin; B McLoughlin (D Kirwan 49), D Flynn, J Hyland (P Woodgate 66). Scorers: D Kirwan 1-3 (1f), J Hyland 0-5 (1f), B McCormack 0-4, K Feely 1-0 (pen), D Flynn (1m), P Cribbin 0-3 each, P Woodgate 0-2 (1f), B McLoughlin, A Beirne 0-1 each. LOUTH: J Califf; D Corcoran, B Duffy (G Browne 72), D McKenny; J Clutterbuck (L Grey 28), N Sharkey, E Callaghan (C Keenan 58); T Durnin (J Murphy 67), C Early (D Campbell 56); L Jackson, S Mulroy, C McKeever; C Downey, C Grimes, C Byrne (T Jackson h/t). Scorers: S Mulroy 0-5 (1m, 1f), C Grimes 0-3 (2m), C Early, C Byrne, T Durnin, J Murphy 0-1 each. REFEREE: D Gough (Meath).