Kildare in control as Meath fail to spark in St.Conleth's final act

It was certainly a day like no other we have witnessed over the years as the curtain came down on St Conleth's Park, Newbridge, in front of an excellent attendance, prior to the work commencing this week on the redevelopment of the stadium.

It was Kildare's last game in the 2023 Allianz Football League; Meath were the visitors and to make it that extra bit special Kildare came out on top by five points — five points that few, even Meath supporters would have no quibbles with if it had been ten points or eve more.

Kildare dominated most of the game against a very poor Meath side managed by Colm O'Rourke whose team never raised a gallop; failed to show any aggression; any fight good, bad or indifferent.

Kildare on the other hand stepped up on their display against Limerick, well at least in the opening half and while there is little doubt that the management team under Glenn Ryan, have a lot to do prior to the start of the Leinster Championship in four weeks time, nevertheless there were signs that things just might be heading in the right direction.

It took six minutes before the opening score of the game arrived, that after Mick O'Grady was fouled and Paddy Woodgate made no mistake with the resultant free.

Jack Sargent (another fine game from the Eadestown man) found Paddy Woodgate but the resultant mark failed to find its target before David Hyland, after fine work from Kevin O'Callaghan, fired over.

Sargent once again came up the left wing in front of the soon to be demolished stand and he found Darragh Kirwan, the Naas man using his power and pace outstripped his marker and fired over; Kildare led 0-3 to 0-0 with 12 minutes on the clock.

Even at this stage The Royals looked somewhat disjointed, in fact one could say they, as a team, looked somewhat uninterested.

Paddy Woodgate converted his second free before Meath finally opened their account on 20 minutes with a fine 56m free from midfielder Jack Flynn.

A long ball in between two defenders and Jack Robinson saw the Clogherinkoe man make a brilliant catch before knocking over the resultant mark with consummate ease as The Lilies led 0-5 to 0-1 with 22 on the clock.

Alex Beirne picked up the first yellow card of the game but Kildare continued to control affairs, Darragh Kirwan once again finding the range, the Naas man was giving his immediate marker, Michael Flood a lot of trouble as he constantly gave the Noamh Bríd a hard time.

A poor clearance saw Meath raise their second white flag of the afternoon, Cillian O'Sullivan the scorer.
Ronan Jones, Meath's no. 8 hit a monster point but it was the home side who finished the half strongest with Kevin Flynn finding Darragh Kirwan and the full forward made no mistake; quickly followed by another, this time Kevin O'Callaghan finding Kirwan again, who was fouled and Jack Robinson knocked over the free with his left peg to leave the half-time score reading Kildare 0-8 Meath 0-3.

The half-time talk, apart from the brilliant entertainment provided, was all about the poor showing of Meath; seasoned followers of the game commented on the feebleness of the Meath effort, even the great Mattie Kerrigan, who soldiered for many a long season with The Royals, scratched his head in wonderment at what he was seeing from his native county.

The opening six or seven minutes was probably the poorest football we have seen from any two teams as both sets of players handling errors and miss-placed passes had to be witnessed to be believed.

On 41 minutes Jack Robinson stretched the Kildare lead with a pointed free before Kevin Flynn (K) and Ronan Jones (M) were both shown yellow cards.

Kevin O'Callaghan who gets around the field with great determination and enthusiasm, set up Paddy Woodgate, the Raheens man fired over his third point of the afternoon and his first from open play.

Substitute Donal Lenihan took over the free-taking duties for Meath and duly popped over his first attempt; Darragh Kirwan replied; Lenihan replied with another free before Jimmy Hyland hit a similar score to make it 0-12 to 0-5 on 55 minutes.

A sweeping move from the home side ended with Kevin Feely hitting a flyer right and wide before Meath hit three points in a row from Matthew Costello and two from Lenihan, all frees but it was that man Darragh Kirwan who got the final point of the game and the last point on the old sod of St Conleth's Park as Kildare wrapped up a valuable two points — Kildare 0-13 Meath 0-8.

SCORERS
Kildare: Darragh Kirwan 0-5 (1 free), Jack Robinson 0-3 (2 free, mark), Paddy Woodgate 0-3 (2 frees), David Hyland 0-1, Jimmy Hyland 0-1 (free).

Meath: Donal Lenihan 0-4 (4 frees), Ronan Jones 0-1, Jack Flynn 0-1 (free), Cillian O'Sullivan 0-1, Matthew Cosello 0-1 (1 free).

TEAMS
Kildare: Mark Donnellan; Mick O'Grady cpt., Shea Ryan, Ryan Houlihan; David Hyland, Kevin Flynn, Jack Sargent; Aaron Masterson, Kevin O'Callaghan; Barry Coffey, Ben McCormack, Alex Beirne; Jack Robinson, Darragh Kirwan, Paddy Woodgate. Subs: Paul Cribbin for Alex Beirne (half-time); Jimmy Hyland for Paddy Woodgate (50 minutes); Daniel Flynn for Jack Robinson (50 minutes); Kevin Feely for Aaron Masterson (57 minutes); Paddy McDermott for Barry Coffey (65 minutes).

Meath: Harry Hogan; Adam O'Neill, Michael Flood, Harry O'Higgins; Ross Ryan, Padraic Harnan, Eoin Harkin; Ronan Jones, Jack Flynn; Daithí McGowan, Matthew Costello, Jason Scully; Aaron Lynch, Diarmuid Moriarty, Cillian O'Sullivan. Subs: Donal Lenihan for Aaron Lynch (29 minutes); Cathal Hickey for Eoin Harkin (32 minutes); Jack O'Connor for Michael Flood (half-ltime); Thomas O'Reilly for Cillian O'Sullivan (47 minutes); Keith Curtis for Diarmuid Moriarty (60 minutes).

Referee: John Gilmartin, Sligo