| kildare stifle exiles progress
 By
Graham Clifford
If the Exiles thought they were hard done by in their two previous League games
against Kerry and Mayo they can have no complaints about Sunday’s
result as an energetic and skilful Kildare side took all the points at
Ruislip.
This was a must-win game for Brendan Bolger’s men and the forlorn
expressions on the faces of the London players at the final whistle told
its own story.
It could have all been so different had Brian Foley managed to scramble
the ball over the Kildare line in the opening minute as London caught
Kildare flat-footed. However the goalmouth pile-up resulted in a free
to Kildare and London’s opportunity of an early onslaught evaporated
as quickly as their hopes of promotion.
Kildare with Mattie O’Dowd shining worked more fluidly as a unit
finishing the game with eight different scorers.
Having survived London’s early sortie the Lilywhites who remain
unbeaten in Division 2B quickly settled and two points from O’Dowd
one from a free and one from near the right touchline put the visitors
into a 0-2 to 0-0 lead by the fourth minute.
London hit back through a John Quinlan free after Barry Dolan was fouled.
The wides count started to mount for Kildare they would finish the day
with 11 in total but the Leinster men never stopped trying and opened
up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead by the 15th minute courtesy of Paul Keegan and O’Dowd.
Superb vision by Quinlan set Eamon Phelan up for an excellent score for
London in the 16th minute but this was nullified two minutes later as
Adrian McAndrew opened his scoring for the day.
Quinlan and O’Dowd traded frees before Kildare rattled the back
of the Exiles net for the first time in the 33rd minute. A sideline cut
by Paudie Reidy was met first-time by Brendan Byrne and the ball flew
past JJ Burke in the London goal.
The Exiles replied immediately. Galway man Darragh Smith cut through the
visitors defence before passing to Tadgh Callaghan who made no mistake
with his vicious low drive.
Brendan Byrne pointed for Kildare in first-half injury time to send his
side in 1-7 to 1-4 ahead at the interval.
London started the second-half knowing that they had 35 minutes to keep
their dream of making the quarter-finals alive. They scored three back-to-back
points to draw level with the wind at the backs. Quinlan pointed from
the dead ball, Brian Foley picked off a classic point after good work
by Callaghan and Barry Dolan got arguably the score of the game as the
tide appeared to be turning in favour of Bolger’s crew.
However Kildare are made of sterner stuff these days and they scored 1-3
without reply to open up a lead which London would never claw back.
In the 18th minute of the second-half Lilywhite Tony Spain fed Andrew
McAndrew and the Coill Dubh clubman made no mistake from close range to
fire Kildare into a 2-10 to 1-7 lead.
London rolled up their sleeves but with centre-back David Kennedy dominant
goal opportunities were hard to come by. Quinlan ever reliable from the
dead ball tagged on three points for the Exiles but it was too little
too late for a side who don’t deserve to be propping up the group
table.
Insurance points in the 31st and 32nd minutes from substitute Ronan Tynan
and the excellent McAndrew put a gloss of the final score as Kildare returned
across the Irish Sea with two well-earned points and a foot in the quarter-finals. |
