Kildare dug deep to dethrone last year’s Leinster Senior Football Championship winners Meath at Croke Park.
Inspirational captain John Doyle and Eamonn Callaghan, who scored four second half points from play, helped the Lilywhites to a battling win.
Meath led 0-07 to 0-05 at half-time but lost Brian Farrell to a red card in the 56th minute and substitute Graham Geraghty had a much-disputed goal disallowed.
Kildare finished strongly with three late points, but their shooting left a lot to be desired at times.
Kieran McGeeney’s men tallied up 17 wides in their recent win over Wicklow and hit one more here, often taking the wrong option and lacking composure in front of the posts.
They started the game at tremendous pace and a point from Alan Smith after just 23 seconds set the tone for an opening quarter full of skill and swashbuckling play.
Two wides followed for Kildare before Meath, who brought Paddy O’Rourke into their attack at the expense of Cian Ward, began to gain a foothold.
Joe Sheridan powered through the middle of the Kildare defence but his hurried shot screwed away to the left of Shane Connolly’s goal. Sheridan and O’Rourke made amends with subsequent points.
Doyle answered back for his side and after Bryan Menton blocked a Smith effort, two successive scores from Shane O’Rourke edged the Royals into a 0-04 to 0-02 lead.
Attacking wing back Emmet Bolton and James Kavanagh brought the sides level again, however Meath’s physical approach was reaping dividends.
Paddy O’Rourke, with a well-struck ‘45’, and Eoghan O’Flaherty traded points before Stephen Bray and Shane O’Rourke closed out the first half’s scoring.
McGeeney, as he trooped off towards the dressing room, was clearly frustrated by his side’s display and last year’s beaten All-Ireland semi-finalists simply had to raise their game.
The Kildare boss got the response he desired as they stamped their mark on proceedings in the opening minutes of the second half. Doyle cut the deficit to the minimum with his second point after just 11 seconds.
Doyle tapped over a free five minutes later and after a reasonably quiet first half, wing forward Callaghan started to make an impression.
Callaghan’s first point nosed Kildare ahead at 0-08 to 0-07 and he tagged on two further scores in the 44th and 49th minutes as Brendan Murphy’s goal came under increased pressure.
Farrell pointed a free for Meath and Sheridan followed up with his third point, but the momentum was clearly with Kildare now and Seamus McEnaney’s charges could only add one more point in the closing 14 minutes.
They lost substitute Farrell to a straight red card, following an incident involving Kildare defender Bolton. The two tangled as Bolton tried to clear the ball out of defence and there was contact made by both players.
However, Farrell, who was seen to strike Bolton near the back of his head, was the one punished by referee Syl Doyle in a very harsh decision. There was widespread shock around the stadium when the red card was produced.
The subsequent introduction of Graham Geraghty, fresh out of inter-county retirement, gave the 14-man Royals a timely boost. Indeed, after Callaghan and Eoghan O’Flaherty had added to Kildare’s points haul, Geraghty’s first touch resulted in a Meath goal – or so he thought.
Sheridan lofted the ball in towards the Kildare square and Geraghty rose between two defenders to knock it into the net past goalkeeper Connolly.
Initially, the umpire reached for the green flag to signal for the goal, but after consulting with both umpires, referee Doyle ruled the score out for a square ball decision. It was a very marginal call and Meath never really recovered from the double setback of the sending-off and disallowed goal.
Paddy O’Rourke registered his third point shortly afterwards, but Kildare, with their greater mobility coming to the fore, were not going to give up their lead.
Points followed from Kavanagh, Eoghan O’Flaherty and substitute Robert Kelly, confirming Kildare’s place in the last four of the Leinster Championship.
KILDARE: S Connolly; A MacLochlainn, M Foley, H McGrillen; G White, B Flanagan, E Bolton (0-01); T O'Connor, H Lynch; M O'Flaherty, E O'Flaherty (0-03, 0-01f, 0-01 '45’), E Callaghan (0-04); A Smith (0-01), J Doyle (0-04, 0-01f), J Kavanagh (0-02).
Subs used: R Sweeney for Flanagan (26 mins), R Kelly (0-01) for O'Connor (54), P O'Neill for Sweeney (57); M Scanlon for MacLochlainn (66), T O'Neill for White (71).
MEATH: B Murphy; G O'Brien, K Reilly, S McAnarney; S Kenny, B Menton, C Lenehan; N Crawford, B Meade; J Queeney, S O'Rourke (0-03, 0-01f), G Reilly; S Bray (0-01), J Sheridan (0-03, 0-01f), P O'Rourke (0-03, 0-01f, 0-01 '45’).
Subs used: M O'Sullivan for Lehehan (24 mins), M Ward for Crawford (41), B Farrell for Bray (41).
Referee: Syl Doyle (Wexford)
