Kildare survive late Offaly fightback to secure second win in the league

Allianz NFL Division 3 round two

Cian O’Neill described it perfectly when he said that there were many aspects of Sunday afternoon’s performance against Offaly that mirrored the display that Kildare put in against Westmeath exactly one week before that.

Kildare looked absolutely superb at times in this game but yet again performance levels tailed off at some periods in the game and that allowed Offaly to gain a foothold in the tie and give Kildare somewhat of a scare towards the end. Kildare looked to be cruising for the majority of the game, especially when the clocked was ticking towards the hour mark and they held a nine point lead.

A mixture of a dip in performance from Kildare coupled with a serious increase in the tempo from their opponents saw Offaly come to within three points of the Lilywhites in the final minutes.

The pivotal point of Offaly’s attempted comeback came when they were awarded a penalty with seven minutes left to play when Cian O’Donoghue, somewhat unluckily, was adjudged to have tripped Graham Guillfoyle in the large parallelogram, resulting in a black card for the Clane man and a goal from Peter Cunningham.

Offaly’s best efforts fell just short however and it was Kildare who took a vital two points out of a game before the sides enter into a three week break.

The early exchanges belonged solely to Kildare, with Niall Kelly starring in the opening minutes. He kicked the first three points of the match, each one more eye-catching than the next, as Kildare raced out of the blocks. Adam Tyrell kicked another score for the hosts, this one a superb effort from distance from the Moorefield man.

Niall Kelly was in superb form.

Kevin Feely and Daniel Flynn were lording the midfield area, with the former making a host of superb catches as he showed his class on his first appearance for Kildare. The Athy man also kicked the fifth point of the game, a fine curling effort from the left wing to put the Lilywhites 0-5 to 0-0 ahead.

Daniel Flynn lording it at midfield.

Offaly eventually got themselves into the match as Niall Mc Namee began to exert an influence on proceedings. The Rhode man opened the scoring for the Faithful men with a close range score, before Bernard Allen knocked over a free shortly after. Kildare responded at the other end in good fashion though, with a patient build-up leading to Feely playing a sumptuous ball into the path of Paul Cribbin who had made a fine run in behind the Offaly defence, and the Johnstownbridge man slotted over from 20 yards out.

Sean Moriarty, who was a late inclusion in the Offaly team, kicked the point of the game at the other end with a superb swerving effort from the right wing but Kildare again responded, with Feely and Cribbin combining once again and the latter posting another score.

Offaly closed out the half quite well and looked much more settled approaching the interval, and another Mc Namee point cut the gap to three points. Kelly had the final say in the half though, kicking a fabulous score from 45 yards out off the outside of his boot, sending Kildare in 0-8 to 0-4 ahead.

Kildare were playing against the wind in the second half, but you wouldn’t have thought so as they continued to dominate proceedings. Eoghan O’Flaherty replaced Paul Cribbin in a tactical change at half-time and he was highly influential for the second period from his half-forward berth. Neill Flynn was also bright after the break and his free-taking was also much improved upon his first half showing. The Maynooth youngster kicked his first score for his county at senior level with a superb free off the ground from about 40 yards out to get the second half scoring underway, before Kildare found the net in superb fashion.

Eamon Callaghan looked devoid of options when he held the ball on the right wing, but the Naas man picked out the unmarked Cathal Mc Nally with a superb ball and the corner-forward coolly finished from close range to the net. Flynn followed up with another free shortly after and suddenly Kildare held a nine point lead.

Cathal McNally cooly slots the ball past Alan Mulhall.

Joe Maher and Flynn swapped further scores, but Offaly then hit a purple patch in which they scored 1-3 without reply. Niall Darby, Guillfoyle and Cian Donoghue all stroked over points, with Cunningham also netting that penalty, and it looked like Kildare could be in for a nervy final few minutes.

Kildare were composed though, and when Flynn pointed a free at the end of normal time to stretch the gap to four it ensured the points were safe.

Scorers for Kildare: N Kelly and N Flynn(4f) 0-4 each, C Mc Nally 1-0, P Cribbin 0-2, K Feely and A Tyrell 0-1 each.

Scorers for Offaly: B Cunningham 1-0pen, N Mc Namee(1f) 0-2, S Moriarty, B Allen(1f), J Maher(1f), N Darby, C Donoghue and G Guillfoyle 0-1 each.

Kildare

M Donnellan; P Kelly, D Hyland, O Lyons; R Houlihan, F Conway, C O’Donoghue; D Flynn, K Feely; A Tyrell, N Kelly, P Cribbin; N Flynn, E Callaghan, C Mc Nally.

Subs used: E O’Flaherty for P Cribbin h/t, P O’Neill for A Tyrell 44mins, E Bolton for R Houlihan 52mins, E Powderly for O Lyons 52mins, M Sherry for E Callaghan 60mins, J Byrne for C O’Donoghue 64mins.

Offaly

A Mulhall; B Darby, E Rigney, S Pender; N Darby, C Donoghue, J O’Connor; G Guillfoyle, M Brazil; C Mc Namee, J Gethings, S Moriarty; B Cunningham, B Allen, N Mc Namee.

Subs used: J Maher for B Allen h/t, N Smith for J Gethings 44mins, A Sullivan for S Moriarty 54mins, R Mc Namee for C Mc Namee 63mins.