Clifford shines as Kingdom get the better of Lillywhites

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 1 Kerry 0-19 Kildare 0-14

IT was comfortable without ever getting to the point where complacency could be countenanced.

There were a couple times when Kerry opened out a lead as wide as seven points that you might have been tempted to call the game. Kildare, however, still packed a punch. Cian O’Neill’s men were still able to force their way back to within striking range of their venerable hosts.

By the midway point of the second half they’d slashed Kerry’s half-time lead in half. With the breeze behind them – and with a dominant middle eight sweeping all before them – it was very easy to imagine a path to victory for the Lillywhites.

With twenty minutes to go Kildare were just three behind Kerry following a point by Paddy Brophy – 0-13 to 0-10. Given Kerry’s propensity to leak goals over the course of the league, victory was far from assured.

Kerry, to give them their dues, dug in from there. Even with their own kick-outs going against them heavily, they continued to fashion chances and mine scores. A foul on Micheál Burns allowed David Clifford to fire Kerry back to four clear from the placed ball.

Bit by bit the pressure eased. A black card for Brophy on fifty six minutes blunted Kildare’s challenge when they could least afford to lose him. Instead of striking back at Kerry, the Lillywhites ceded the initiative.

Clifford, by now giving full expression to his array of skills, picked out David Moran for a point with Kildare momentarily down to fourteen men. The Kingdom’s lead back to five points, Kildare were left with a mountain to climb all over again.

To reel in a lead once is a difficult enough thing to do. Todoit twice is next to, although not quite, impossible. A goal at any stage could have turned the game upon its head. Kildare just never lookedlikegettingone.

Kerry’s defence may not have been flawless – Jason Foley found Daniel Flynn too hot to handle – but it was good enough to ensure that Shane Murphy didn’t have to pull off a save over the seventy plus minutes.

Peter Crowley seemed to play much more conservatively than he normally would, dropping back and protecting his full-back line. Fionn Fitzgerald, meanwhile, gave an effective performance making some vital interceptions.

In most areas of the pitch – bar the middle third where struggled in the second half – Kerry were improved. The improvement wasn’t spectacular and we have to measure that improvement against the quality of the opposition, but we can’t ignore it because of that.

After a twelve point shellacking at Headquarters, Kerry needed to bounce back and they did. Instead of letting doubts prey on their minds, they aggressively attacked Kildare and, when they got a run on them, showed their ruthless streak.

Even with Kildare starting promisingly – they hit three on the bounce inside the opening ten minutes in response to an early Barry John Keane effort – Kerry were well on top of their brief.

Kerry hit three of their own unanswered – Burns, Paul Geaney (a free) and Clifford – to reclaim their lead and, while Kildare struck back through the hugely impressive Flynn, Kerry’s blood was up by now.

In the next quarter of an hour the Kingdom hit seven unanswered – two from Kevin McCarthy from play, two frees from Clifford and points from

Paul Murphy, Dáithí Casey and Geaney – to storm into an eleven-four lead.

Flynn struck back to make it a six point lead just before the half-time whistle – 0-11 to 0-5 – comfortable enough for Kerry, but with the breeze to come for Kildare in the second half down into the Mitchels’ end Kerry couldn’t be certain of anything.

Perhaps that explains why Éamonn Fitzmaurice was a little bit conservative with some of his second half substitutions. He took off two inside forwards and replaced them with more defensive players – Mark Griffin replaced Paul Geaney and Johnny Buckley (a half-forward or midfielder) replaced Barry John Keane.

With so much on the line – defeat would have pitched Kerry into the teeth of a relegation battle – it’s probably understandable enough that the manager would choose to do so. One can debate the merits or otherwise, but with Kildare rampant around the middle Kerry probably did need to disrupt Kildare in that area of the field.

It allowed Kerry to maintain their five point lead – 0-15 to 0-10 – all the way to the end, even with Flynn still hugely dangerous down the other end.

It was a glass half full kind of day for the Kingdom. Clifford is getting better all the time, Dáithí Casey was impressive in his first start of the campaign and for the first time Kerry didn’t concede a goal or even concede a goal-scoring chance to their opponents.

Still much to do obviously, but on this day the positives outweighed the negatives.

KERRY: Shane Murphy (0-1f), Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Jason Foley, Ronan Shanahan, Paul Murphy (0-1), Peter Crowley, Fionn Fitzgerald, Jack Barry, Barry O’Sullivan, Micheál Burns (0-1), Dáithí Casey (0-2), Kevin McCarthy (0-2), David Clifford (0-6, 4f), Paul Geaney (0-3, 1f), Barry John Keane (0-2) Subs: David Moran (0-1) for B O’Sullivan, 45, Matthew Flaherty for M Burns, 51, Adrian Spillane for K McCarthy, 56, Mark Griffin for P Geaney, 60, Johnny Buckley for BJ Keane, 62, Tom

O’Sullivan for F Fitzgerald, 66

KILDARE: Mark Donnellan, Peter Kelly (0-1), David Hyland, Mick O’Grady (0-1), Johnny Byrne, Eoin Doyle, Kevin Flynn, Kevin Feely (0-1), Tommy Moolick (0-1), Fergal Conway, Keith Cribbin, Paddy Brophy (0-1), Ben McCormack (0-1), Daniel Fynn (0-6), Niall Kelly (0-1) Subs: Paul Cribbin for KFeely (inj), 27, Fionn Dowling (0-1) for T Moolick, 48, Cathal McNally for B McCormack, 58, Jimmy Hyland for F Conway, 60 BlackCards: David Slattery for K Cribbin, 48, Mark Sherry for P Brophy, 56

REFEREE: David Coldrick (Meath)