Flynn and O'Donoghue hit wonder goals to help Kildare to opening round victory

Allianz National Football League Division 3

Kildare started their Allianz National Football League campaign in good stead as they secured victory over a full strength Westmeath side in Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon.

Cian O'Neill has promised that the Lilywhites will play an open and expansive game in 2016, and judging by what we witnessed in Mullingar, a free-flowing system is what we can expect for the remainder of the season. Despite playing against a very stiff breeze in the first half, Kildare operated with a three man full-forward line of Cathal Mc Nally, Niall Kelly and Neill Flynn rather than playing a third man around the middle of the park.

John Heslin was in superb free taking form for the home side, and he kicked four of the Lake County's first five points of the game from placed balls. The pick of the bunch came in the fifth minute of the game as the St Lomans attacker landed an audacious point from 55 metres out.

Kildare were enjoying a very limited amount of possession in the opening 20 minutes and if it wasn't for a trio of Adam Tyrell frees they could have been well behind early on. The pivotal moment in the game came after 22 minutes when Daryl Flynn chased back excellently to breakdown a Westmeath attack, with the ball eventually finding its way to his midfield partner Daniel Flynn and the Johnstownbridge clubman ran 60 yards before thumping a sublime effort into the top corner of Darren Quinn's net.

Heslin and Kieran Martin pointed a free each to level the scores at 1-3 to 0-6, before Callum Mc Cormack floated over an exceptional point to push Westmeath ahead.

Kildare took control for the remainder of the half however, and it was a stunning Cian O'Donoghue goal that instigated the renaissance. The Clane flier broke forward from his wing-back berth and exchanged a neat one-two with Niall Kelly before placing a fantastic swerving effort into the left corner of the net.

Energized by that score, Kildare kicked on and Niall Kelly hit the target twice while Cathal Mc Nally also raised a white flag with a fine score. Kieran Martin pointed a free late in the half to leave the half-time scores at 2-6 to 0-8.

With the wind at their back in the second period you would have expected Kildare to push on, but the game became an extremely scrappy affair and referee Noel Mooney was perhaps guilty of slowing the game down by blowing for frees all to often.

The hosts were guilty of some poor decisions in attack in the second half and only scored three points, all frees, in the the second 35 minutes. It took 10 minutes for either side to score, with Heslin eventually finding the target with a close range free.

Kildare assumed a sort of control from that point on though, and points from Paul Cribbin and Cathal Mc Nally pushed the Lilywhites further ahead. Heslin and Martin stroked over a free each at the opposite end to cut the gap to three points, but Westmeath were in desperate need of a goal and it never looked like arriving.

Niall Kelly made sure of the victory late on when he tapped over from close range after substitute Mark Sherry offloaded to him after fielding a high ball from Daniel Flynn.

A decent beginning to this year's league campaign as Kildare showed some real quality and assurance on front of goal, but Cian O'Neill will look to improve on this performance no doubt.

Westmeath

D Quinn; J Gonoud, A Stone, K Maguire; D Lynch, P Holloway, J Dolan; D Corroon, S Flanagan; G Egan, P Sharry, K Martin; C Mc Cormack, J Heslin, S Dempsey

Subs: J Egan for Shane Flanagan h/t, R Conellan for S Dempsey h/t, D Daly for C Mc Cormack 65.

Kildare

M Donnellan; P Kelly, C Fitzpatrick, O Lyons; J Byrne, F Conway, D Hyland; Daryl Flynn, Daniel Flynn(1-0); A Tyrell(0-3f), E O'Flaherty, P Cribbin(0-1); N Flynn, N Kelly(0-3),C McNally(0-2).

Subs: C O’Donoghue(1-0) for C Fitzpatrick 15, E O'Connor for Daryl Flynn h/t P O'Neill for A Tyrell 55, E Callaghan for E O'Flaherty(black card) 61, M Sherry for N Flynn 65.