Kildare 1-22 Offaly 2-14
Kildare succeeded in scoring more than in their last two Leinster championship outings combined tonight at St Conleth’s Park as they powered past Offaly in the final quarter of their qualifier fixture in Newbridge, securing their place in Monday morning’s qualifier draw.
After the turgid fare of their provincial encounters against Wexford and Westmeath the supporters that took in tonight’s local derby were treated to a thrilling, if fractious, encounter against the Faithful County in which referee Padraig Hughes handed out one red card and over a dozen blacks and yellows, leading to a full seven minutes of added time at the end of the second half.
Right from the start this was an end to end encounter and while Kildare played with the aid of a stiff diagonal breeze in the opening half, the forwards at both ends of the field seemed to be in fine form.
Kildare established a platform of dominance around the middle while Neil Flynn was very lively close to goal, and at the other end of the field Johnny Moloney caused Kildare no end of problems, scoring two points of his own and winning a handful of frees with his physical power.
Kildare led by the odd point in nine after a hugely entertaining opening 12 minutes, and they made a huge breakthrough when Tommy Moolick scored the game’s first goal, tapping in the rebound after his initial effort was parried by Alan Mulhall in the Offaly goal.
The Faithful men responded brilliantly to this setback and picked off the next three points of the game, with Moloney particularly prominent, but Kildare found a purple patch of their own as the brilliance of Athy’s Niall Kelly started to come to the fore close to the Offaly goal.
Kelly picked out one score in heavy traffic and started to pull strings in the Kildare attack, while both sides could have added further goals.
Fergal Conway broke through the Offaly cover but chose to punch the ball over the bar from a tight angle, while an excellent catch and shot from Moloney forced Mark Donnellan to make an excellent save to parry the ball over the bar.
A 1-12 to 0-10 interval lead looked like the least that Kildare would need given the strength of the breeze but the Lily Whites opened well once again, gaining traction at midfield where they disrupted the Offaly kickout very effectively.
They got caught out however when a turnover at midfield saw Offaly create a four on three overlap and it was perfectly exploited as Peter Cunningham bore down on goal, drew the last man and set up Nigel Dunne for a close range finish.
Kildare rallied with the next two points but in the 44th minute Offaly found the net again, their first time in any league or championship game this year to score two goals.
Moloney beat his man to a ball on the left corner and he drove at goal before being dragged down by Mark Donnellan.
Peter Cunningham slammed the resultant penalty to the roof of the net and while Kildare again found the next score, a free from Neil Flynn, this time Offaly built on their momentum and picked off the next three points – two frees from Nigel Dunne and a glorious long range strike from Peter Cunningham.
The sides were level with 15 minutes to play and with the wind at their backs, the smart money was on Offaly.
However they were hit with a hammer blow when Alan Mulhall was controversially ruled to have overcarried after he intercepted a diagonal Kildare pass and that allowed the home side to retake the lead.
Eoghan O’Flaherty struck a second free to double the lead and then discipline broke down as various skirmishes broke out all over the field.
Eoin Carroll was sent off for a second bookable offence while several other players on both sides were lucky to escape the same sanction, and in the absence of a key fielding midfielder, Offaly’s ability to compete for their own kickout evaporated.
The last five scores of the game were struck by Kildare who overwhelmed Offaly with decisive and direct running from deep positions, making the win safe long before Hughes sounded the final whistle.
Kildare: Mark Donnellan; Peter Kelly, David Hyland (0-01), Ollie Lyons; Johnny Byrne, Eoin Doyle, Emmet Bolton; Tommy Moolick (1-01), Kevin Feeley (0-01); Adam Tyrrell (0-04, 0-02 frees), Morgan O’Flaherty, Fergal Conway (0-02); Cathal McNally (0-01), Niall Kelly (0-04), Neil Flynn (0-05, 0-02 frees).
Subs: Ciaran Fitzpatrick for Peter Kelly (32 mins), Eoghan O’Flaherty (0-02 frees) for Adam Tyrrell (47 mins), Cian O’Donoghue for Ollie Lyons (50 mins), Fionn Dowling for Eoin Doyle (Black Card – 51 mins), Alan Smith (0-01) for Neil Flynn (54 mins)Keith Cribbin for Cathal McNally (Black Card – 71 mins).
Offaly: Alan Mulhall; Brian Darby, Eoin Rigney, Sean Pender; Niall Darby (0-02, 0-01 free), Peter Cunningham (1-01, 1-00 pen), Cian Donohue; Eoin Carroll, Niall Smith; Michael Brazil, Nigel Dunne (1-07, 0-07 frees), Graham Guilfoyle (0-01); Johnny Moloney (0-02), Niall McNamee (0-01), Anton Sullivan.
Subs: Conor McNamee for Graham Guilfoyle (Half Time), Bernard Allen for Michael Brazil (64 mins), Jason Gethings for Peter Cunningham (inj – 75 mins).
Referee: Padraig Hughes (Armagh)
