Five second half goals for Kildare saw them ease to a 24-point victory over Waterford in Dungarvan this evening with Darragh Kirwan impressing for the visitors.
Kildare, as you would expect, travelled down to Dungarvan as comfortable favourites and they stood up to that tag right from the off.
Darragh Kirwan's four first half points from play set the narrative for the afternoon as Kildare looked comfortable despite only leading by five at the break.
Waterford tried their best to keep up with their visitors throughout but Kildare were just too sharp in attack. Kevin Feely and Kirwan contributing six first half points between them.
Waterford, to their credit battled hard and limited Kildare to little in the way of goal chances in the opening half and with just five between the sides at the break left themselves with plenty to be positive about.
The positivity from the first half became a distant memory almost assoon as the second half restarted with Kildare hitting 1-04 in theopening ten minutes to put twelve between the sides.
The floodgates opened from that point on with Glenn Ryan’s sidehelping themselves to a further 4-03 in the remaining 25 minutes to record their second victory of their first Tailteann Cup campaign.
Second half goals from Woodgate, Flynn and two from impressive substitute Shane O’Sullivan saw Kildare stroll to victory in the end with Waterford no match for the Lilywhites.
Second half points for Waterford from the two Curry’s and Donie Fitzgerald was all the Munster men could muster up with a final scoreline of 5-15 to 0-06 in Dungarvan.
Both sides looked tentative in the opening minutes but it didn’t take Kildare long to loosen out with three points from play from Darragh Kirwan inside the opening ten minutes giving Kildare a 0-04 to 0-01 lead. Mark Cummins with the solitary point for the hosts.
The attacking pressure kept coming from Kildare and Niall Kelly shouldhave had a goal on seven minutes but pulled his effort badly wide ofthe far post after linking up smartly with Darragh Kirwan.
Waterford were feeling the pressure with just a quarter of an hourgone. With the scoreboard ticking over nicely for Kildare they decided to retreat all of their outfield players into their own half in an attempt to put a stop to Kildare’s early dominance both on the pitch and the scoreboard.
Try as they might, the tactical switch didn’t have much impact as Glenn Ryan’s side kept coming.
The visitors were far too comfortable in attack as the first half progressed.
Points from Kirwan, LukeKillian and two from Kevin Feely extended Kildare’s lead to six points on the half hour mark with the Lillie’s never really coming out of first gear.
Two Jason Curry points left five between the sides at the break with Kildare full value for their half time lead but Kildare’s Barry Kelly was shown an immediate black card for a lazy foul on Michael Curry onthe stroke of half time.
The game was as good as over as a contest with just ten minutes of the second half played as Kildare kicked 1-4 in a devastating spell in attack.
An easy goal for Paddy Woodgate coupled with two fine points the pick of the lot as Kildare made hay while the sun shone down south.
Things went from bad to worse for Waterford with 20 minutes remaining as midfielder Michael Curry who was already on a yellow was shown a black card and sent to the sideline for a late tackle in midfield.
The Kildare dominance rose to another level after the sending off as they hit three goals in 13 minutes to kill the game off completely.
Substitute Shane O’Sullivan impressed off the benchraising the green flag twice from close range with Paddy Woodgate waltzing through the Waterford full back line before also burying past Beresford in the Waterford goal.
Kevin Flynn got a fifth goal for Kildare as the clock ticked down with Waterford’s confidence completely shot at that stage.
A tough day for Paul Shankey’s men but another ruthless display from the Leinster side.
Kildare face Leitrim in the final group game in two weeks time with Waterford still to play Longford.
Waterford: Aaron Beresford; Ross Browne, Caoimhin Walsh, Liam Fennell;Robbie McGrath, Billy O’Keefe, Dermot Ryan, Michael Curry, Tholom Guiry; James Walsh, Jason Curry, Billy Hynes; Stephen Curry (0-01),James Power, Mark Cummins (0-01)
Subs: Sean Whelan – Barrett for James Walsh [56], Conor O’Cuirrin forBilly Hynes [56], Donie Fitzgerald (0-01) for James Power [58], MichaelO’Brien for Jason Curry (0-03, 2f) [70]
Kildare: Didier Cordonnier; Ryan Burke, Shea Ryan, Eoin Doyle; TonyArchbold, Brian Byrne, Kevin Flynn (1-01); Luke Killian (0-02), Brendan Gibbons; Barry Kelly, Darragh Kirwan (0-04), Paddy McDermott; Paddy Woodgate (1-02), Kevin Feely (0-02, 1f, 1m), Niall Kelly (1-03)
Subs: Alex Beirne for Brendan Gibbons [47], Shane O’Sullivan (2-00) for Darragh Kirwan [51], Sam McCormack (0-01) for Kevin Feely [56], DeanO’Donoghue for Ryan Burke [56], Rian Teahan for Paddy McDermott [62]Referee: Seamus Mulhare (Laois)
