Lacklustre Kildare open 2018 campaign with 8-point defeat to Louth

Louth 2-11

O'Byrne Cup round one

On a night when there were plenty of fresh faces in the Kildare line up there were very few positives to take as Kildare were hammered by Louth in the first competitive match of the season.

Perhaps it is Kildare's impending return to Division 1 football or maybe their decent showing in the Leinster Championship last year, but there was certainly a greater buzz about an O'Byrne Cup game in the county than there has been for some years. There wasn't a seat left to be had in the stand a full 20 minutes before throw-in, and thankfully Storm Eleanor, and whatever other weather fronts are said to be floating around, stayed clear for the entire 70 minutes.

Playing into a stiff breeze, Kildare couldn't have gotten off to a much worse start. They trailed by 2-3 to 0-1 after 17 minutes after playing extremely poorly in defence and lacking any cutting edge in attack. Kildare's exit strategy from their own half left a lot to be desired as they failed to gain any possession from their own kickouts and when they had possession in play they were constantly turned over due to passing errors coming from a lack of concentration.

James Butler started the scoring with a free, before a poorly contested kickout allowed Andy McDonnell to curl over a second point, and Tommy Durnin floated over a huge free. The first goal arrived when Kevin Feely's poor pass wasn't gathered by Eoin Powderly and that allowed Tadgh McEnaney steal in for a goal.

Brian McLoughlin - on his debut - kicked Kildare's first point from a free, but Louth plundered their second goal when Emmet Carolan's long ball went over the head of Powderly and into the arms of McEnaney, and while O'Neill saved his first attempt the corner-forward knocked home the rebound.

Cian O'Neill decided to bring Eoin Doyle in for Johnny Byrne to sure things up, while Neill Flynn and Keith Cribbin came in for the injured Chris Healy and Cathal McNally.

Kildare finally began to motor, and Luke Flynn stroked over a point before Andy McDonnell responded for Louth. Kevin Flynn broke forward impressively to nudge over a point for the Lilywhites as they began to dominate, and three excellent scores from Neill Flynn helped cut the gap to four points shortly before the break.

Louth, who had Tommy Durnin booked for diving in the square towards the end of the half, finished strongly with a brilliant point from Niall Conlon to lead by 2-6 to 0-7 at the break.

Despite the improvement at the end of the first half, Kildare's overall display in the second period plummeted badly.

It took 28 minutes for Kildare to get their first point of the second half through Johnny Byrne, while Chris Healy added a late point to cap a decent individual display.

Louth didn't have to be at their best, but they remained well in control as Bevan Duffy, James Butler and William Woods were among their scorers in the second half.

Scorers for Kildare: N Flynn 0-3, B McLoughlin 0-2f, J Byrne, C Healy, L Flynn and K Flynn 0-1 each.

Scorers for Louth: T McEnaney 2-0, A McDonnell, T Durnin(1f), and J Butler(2f) 0-2 each, B Duffy, G McSorley, N Conlon and R Holcroft 0-1 each.

Kildare

Aaron O'Neill; Eoin Powderly, Peter Kelly, Mikey Kelly; Daniel Courtney, Johnny Byrne, Kevin Flynn; Luke Flynn, Kevin Feely; Mark Sherry, David Slattery, Fergal Conway; Chris Healy, Brian McLoughlin, Cathal McNally.

Subs used: Eoin Doyle, Keith Cribbin, Neill Flynn, Cian O'Donoghue, Pascal Connell, Tommy Moolick and Fionn Dowling

Louth

Craig Lynch; Andrew Smith, Emmet Carolan, James Craven; Eimhin Keenan, Bevan Duffy, Darren Marks; Ronan Grufferty, Tommy Durnin; James Butler, Andy McDonnell, Gerard McSorley; Tadgh McEnaney, Barry Flanagan, Niall Conlon.

Subs used: Jim McEnanaey, Ciaran Downey, Patrick Reilly, Ross Nally, Fergal Donohue, William Woods, Ronan Holcroft.