Kildare secure victory, but poor performance leaves more questions than answers

Allianz NFL Division 3

Kildare may have recorded their fourth win on the trot this afternoon, but the performance left plenty to be desired and there will be some serious questions asked during the week when the game is reviewed by both players and management.

While Kildare have mixed the good with the bad so far in their performances this year, the victory over Limerick came with very few positives to look back on. Limerick are not a team with a huge amount of quality, and with all due respect, Kildare should be accounting for the likes of the Munster men much more easily than they did.

The Treaty men were hugely defensive throughout the game, operating firstly with one sweeper, before switching to two sweepers midway through the first half to stem the tide of Kildare attacks. It was a move that worked, as Kildare's scoring rate dropped alarmingly after the first 20 minutes of the game.

The Lilywhites played with a very direct style in the opening quarter and it paid dividends early on as Niall Kelly got the home side off to a flying start when he buried a fifth minute goal. A superb long ball from his Athy clubmate Kevin Feely found the diminutive attacker in space, and Kelly skinned his man before driving a low shot into Donal O’Sullivan’s net.

The Lilywhites had a healthy lead built after 25 minutes thanks to fine scores from Alan Smith, Kevin Feely and Eoghan O’Flaherty but their indiscipline eventually let Limerick back into the tie. Niall Kelly had been causing serious problems for the Limerick defence in the opening exchanges, but Limerick changed their system and placed two sweepers on front of their full-back line and it starved Kildare's inside line of any decent service for the remainder of the game.

Ian Ryan stroked over four frees before the interval to cut the deficit to just one point as Kildare went into the break with a 1-4 to 0-6 lead.

The half-time teamtalk was evidently a heated one for the home side, with Kildare emerging almost five minutes after Limerick arrived back on the field, with referee Niall Cullen blowing his whistle various times to call the Lilywhites back onto the pitch.

It looked as if Kildare might have cracked the code of the Limerick defence in the early second half exchanges as they opened up a three point gap following Kelly's pointed free and a sumptuous effort from Fionn Dowling.

Limerick lost their influential duo of Ian Ryan and Seanie Buckley early in the second half, but one of their replacements, Sean McSweeney, continued to score from placed balls for the visitors. Johnny Byrne, who was one of Kildare's best performers, finished a superb solo run with a fine point from long range as the game threatened to become interesting once again.

Kildare faltered however, and two frees from McSweeney helped to cut the gap to the minimum once again. They could have taken an unlikely lead in the 57th minute when Killian Ryan wiggled clear of the Kildare defence, but the substitute smashed his close range effort off the crossbar, much to the relief of the large Kildare crowd.

O'Flaherty and Danny Neville swapped frees at either end, but with Kildare just one point ahead, they still looked in danger of letting the game slip away with five minutes to play. There was a palpable sense of relief when Eamon Callaghan eventually raised another white flag for the hosts with a superb curling effort from long range, while he showed all his experience shortly after to fist over a point when he could have taken a chance and shot for goal.

Another free from O'Flaherty late on was the insurance score, and although some sloppy defending allowed Brian Fanning to net a goal at the end of stoppage time, it came too late as Kildare managed to hang on for victory.

Kildare

T Corley; P Kelly, D Hyland, E Powderly(O Lyons 14mins); J Byrne(0-1), F Conway(K Murnaghan h/t), C O’Donoghue; K Feely(0-1), Daryl Flynn(T Moolick 50mins); C McNally(E O’Connor 65mins, E O’Flaherty(0-3,2f), M Byrne; N Kelly(1-1,1f), F Dowing(0-1)(P O’Neill 53mins), A Smith(0-2)(E Callaghan(0-2) 44mins).

Limerick

D O’Sullivan; J McCarthy(S Flanagan 26mins), P Browne, S O’Dea; M Donovan, I Corbett(S O’Dea 16mins), P White; T Lee, S Buckley(0-1)(K Ryan 43mins); C Sheehan, P Ranahan(B Fanning(1-0) 65mins), D Treacy; I Ryan(0-6,5f)(S McSweeney(0-2f) 45mins), D Neville(0-1f), P Nash(B Donovan 54mins)