Nine-man Limerick 37 were no match for a rampant Kildare side at Station Road tonight.
Philip Gorman netted twice and turned in an excellent individual performance but there were plenty of heroes for Kildare on a good night for the Thoroughbreds.
Gorman opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 26 minutes when he sent David Ryan the wrong way after Derek McCarthy was shown a red card for handling Gorman's initial goal-bound header on the line.
The normally dependable central defensive pairing of Paul Finucane and Pat Purcell were given a torrid time by Gorman and the Kildare striker's perseverance led to the second goal two minutes before half-time.
Gorman blocked down Finucane's clearance, then attempted to go around Ryan but the Limerick goalkeeper got his foot to the ball.
However, such was Limerick's luck on the night, the ball fell to Cathal Brady who superbly chipped the ball over Finucane and Ryan from 25 yards.
Despite missing five first team regulars, three through suspension and a further two with injury, Kildare were the far better side and they thought they had scored again within a minute of the second half but Gorman's effort was ruled out for offside.
Gorman had the ball in the net again just after the hour mark and this time there was no offside flag to save Limerick.
Finucane's back pass put Ryan under pressure and his clearance rebounded off Gorman's back and into the net for his 11th goal of the season.
With youngsters Eoin Kavanagh and Eoghan Carew controlling midfield, Kildare always looked likely to add to their tally and Gorman almost took the match ball home with him when a 25-yard free-kick was deflected just wide of the post.
Alan Byrne cleared a late effort from John Tierney off the line but Limerick's night ended on a sour note when substitute Bobby Gregg was shown two yellow cards for fouls on Barry Clancy within seven minutes of coming on for his debut.
Kildare County: Cassidy; McArdle, Donnelly, P Byrne, A Byrne, Clancy; Brady (Hanaphy 88), Kavanagh, Carew, P Rigney (Barrett 78); Gorman.
Limerick 37: Ryan; Whyte (Gregg 79), Finucane, Purcell (Danaher 54), Molan; Colbert (Clarke 65), Barrett, Hayes, Waters; Tierney, McCarthy.
Referee: P Sutton (Clare).
