Big league win for Kildare Senior football side in Sligo
Kildare's James McGrath in action today in Sligo
It wasn’t pretty and at times it was uncomfortable, but Kildare deservedly secured their second win in eight days with a slightly flattering six-point margin over Sligo at a sunny Markievicz Park this afternoon.
Brian Flanagan’s side had led most of the way but when Sligo goalkeeper Aidan Devaney landed a ’45 to reduce the gap to a point (0-14 to 0-13) with nine minutes remaining Kildare supporters must had a familiar sinking feeling.
But Kildare knuckled down as Flanagan would want them to do and after Darragh Kirwan landed a point the same player blasted to the top corner of the net after Devaney’s kickout went straight to Kevin Flynn who offloaded to Ben McCormack, the Sarsfields man putting Kirwan through for the clinching score.
Kevin Feely then set up Colm Dalton for the final score.
Niall Kelly had opened the scoring inside the opening minute and added a second four minutes later, but Sligo hit back with three in a row from Alan Reilly, Darragh Cummins and a Niall Murphy free.
Kirwan, much like his colleagues, had struggled to get going on a heavy surface but on thirteen minutes he took a pass from the hard-working Brian McLoughlin to stroke over a two-pointer from right on the line of the arc.
Full-forward Patrick O’Connor equalised with a fine score from just inside the arc, but Kildare hit a purple patch with four unanswered points in eight minutes to go 0-8 to 0-4 ahead.
Goalkeeper Didier Cordonnier started that sequence with a ’45. Ryan Sinkey gobbled up a Ryan Houlihan delivery into the corner for the second and Kirwan and Alex Beirne quickly added points to extend the lead to four by the 23rd minute.
Murphy pulled one back from a 20 metre free. Then centre-back Cummins, under pressure from three Kildare defenders, angled one over from the left corner five minutes from half-time and O’Connor outmuscled Ryan Burke to slot over Sligo’s seventh point and narrow the gap to a point.
Sinkey put Kildare two ahead again and they could have created daylight two minutes from half-time, but Sligo goalkeeper Devaney produced a flying save to divert a Kirwan goal attempt out for a ’45 which Cordonnier skewed wide.
Right on half-time a high tackle by Burke on Cian Lally earned the Caragh man a yellow card and Murphy punished him from the free to leave only a point between them at the break (0-9 to 0-8).
Four of the first five second half points went Kildare’s way. Houlihan fisted over after an incisive break on the right before Kirwan produced a carbon copy point from the opposite side. After an Alan McLoughlin free, substitute Darragh Swords then finished from a Feely pass before Beirne pointed to make it 0-13 to 0-9 after 50 minutes.
Cummins hit back with his third point for the Yeats men and a two-point free from Murphy made it 0-13 to 0-12 before Dalton stretched the lead to two again.
Devaney’s ’45 made for a nervy finish, but Kildare dug in and finished the stronger to move onto four points in the table ahead of another away trip up the N4 to Leitrim in a fortnight’s time.
KILDARE: Didier Cordonnier 0-1 (45); Ryan Burke, Mick O’Grady, Brian Byrne; Ryan Houlihan 0-1, James McGrath, David Hyland; Kevin Feely, Callum Bolton; Brian McLoughlin, Alex Beirne 0-2, Colm Dalton 0-2; Ryan Sinkey 0-2, Darragh Kirwan 1-5 (1tp), Niall Kelly 0-2. Subs: Darragh Swords 0-1 for Sinkey HT, Kevin Flynn for Burke 46, Aaron Masterson for Kelly 55, Cathal Hagney for Beirne 58, Ben McCormack for McLoughlin 68.
SLIGO: Aidan Devaney 0-1 (45); Paul McNamara, Eddie McGuinness, Evan Lyons; Brian Cox, Darragh Cummins 0-3, Ross Doherty; Canice Mulligan, Paul Kilcoyne; Cian Lally, Alan McLoughlin 0-2 (2fs), Eoghan Smith; Alan Reilly 0-1, Patrick O’Connor 0-2, Niall Murphy 0-4 (2fs,1tpf), Subs: Jack Lavin for Doherty 48, Pat Spillane for Smith 55, Luke Towey for Reilly 61, David Quinn for Lally 68.
REFEREE: Thomas Murphy (Galway).
