Poor second half showing from Kildare allows Dubs back in to claim O'Byrne Cup final berth

Dublin 0-16

O'Byrne Cup semi-final

A second half collapse from Kildare, coupled with a barnstorming finish from Dublin, helped an experimental Sky Blues side come overturn a four-point deficit and seal a two-point win to book their place in the O'Byrne Cup final against Louth. Kildare scored just four points after Daniel Flynn's 22nd minute goal, effectively allowing Dublin to time their run to perfection and seal their win with a flurry of late scores.

The image of traffic backed up to the Naas dual-carriageway more than 45 minutes before the game exemplified the level of enthusiasm for this game, despite the fact that it was 70 minutes of football that will hardly be remembered in the white heat of championship action in June.

The Dubs packed into St Conleth's Park, taking over the hill at the Town End of the venue, while a healthy smattering of supporters populated the terrace side.

The initial chants of 'come on you boys in blue' were quickly drowned out by an excellent opening score as Fionn Dowling laid the ball on to Daniel Flynn, who then burst by two Dublin defenders before laying it off to Niall Kelly and he split the posts from 35 metres out. Dublin showed a great degree of incisiveness in retaliation as Ross Hazley carved through the Kildare defence to set up Paul Hudson for his first point of the afternoon, cancelling out Kelly's opening score within 40 seconds.

Dowling was at the heart of Kildare's next score as he produced a fine catch -securing a mark in the process- before angling a beautiful ball towards Paul Cribbin who curled over from the right wing. Dublin's Paul Hudson was looking extremely dangerous in the early stages as he constantly looked to move debutant Mark Hyland all over the pitch, and he expertly set up Conor McHugh to level matters once more, before the Thomas Davis clubman kicked them into the lead via a free.

Johnny Byrne then struck the game's opening goal as the Allenwood defender took a pass from Paul Cribbin and then sold a superb dummy that took two Dublin defenders out of play before rifling the ball low into the back of Evan Comeford's net.

But for a glaring miss from Hazley Dublin could have responded instantaneously, but a huge point from Kevin Feely sent Kildare into a three-point lead for the first time in the game. Cribbin and Hudson then swapped points, the latter coming from a free, before Mark Donnellan was called into action to produce a superb save on the Dublin attacker from close range.

That save seemed to wake Kildare up a bit, and Dan Flynn finally got the goal that he had been threatening to score throughout the opening 20 minutes. Kevin Feely secured a mark from a Donnellan kickout, and then helped the ball on to Kelly who in turn found the Johnstownbridge man. He needed three bites at the cherry to bundle home from close range as Jason Smith bravely blocked his initial effort, but he eventually stabbed the ball home after being hauled down in the square.

Flynn had the ball in the net once again five minutes later, but referee David Hickey ruled the goal out for reasons that left the large attendance mystified. That seemed to begin a period of sloppiness from the hosts as Dublin gained control of the tie, knocking over four points in a row through Shane Boland, Ciaran Reddin, Paul Hudson and Jason Whelan.

Kildare went from the 22nd minute of the half to the end without registering a score, and Cian O'Neill will have been relieved to get his players back into the dressing room at the break to regroup, though they held a lead of 2-4 t0 0-8.

Upon the restart it was Kildare who initially went on the front foot, with Ben McCormack finally getting the score his first half endeavours warranted, while Niall Kelly added a superb point five minutes later to stretch the gap to four points.

Donnellan then produced another piece of goalkeeping brilliance by denying Killian O'Gara with a fine double save, but Dublin continued to pile on the pressure and two points from Niall Scully and one from substitute Colm Basquel narrowed the gap to one point.

Kildare got a bit of an injection back to life when Neill Flynn pointed a couple of scores in the space of two minutes to re-establish a three-point lead for the Lilywites, but they failed to score from that point onwards as Dublin surged back into the tie.

The industrious Hazley kickstarted a purple patch for the Dubs with a close range score, before Shane Cunningham raised a white flag with a tidy effort and McHugh levelled matters with a free three minutes from time. It was the impressive Scully who kicked Dublin ahead in the last minute of normal time, and when McHugh added another point to his tally late in stoppage time it sealed an impressive win for this experimental Dublin side.

Scorers for Kildare: D Flynn and J Byrne 1-0 each, N Kelly, P Cribbin and N Flynn(1f) 0-2 each, B McCormack and K Feely 0-1 each.

Scorers for Dublin: N Scully, P Hudson(2f), C McHugh(1f) 0-3 each, J Whelan, S Boland, C Basquel, S Cunningham, C Reddin and R Hazley 0-1 each.

Kildare

M Donnellan; M O'Grady, D Hyland, M Hyland(O Lyons ht); J Byrne, E Doyle(C O'Donoghue 68mins), K Cribbin(S Ryan 57mins); K Feely(T Moolick ht), F Dowling; F Conway(C Hartley 62mins), N Kelly, P Cribbin(C McNally 49mins); N Flynn, D Flynn, B McCormack(E Callaghan 47mins).

Dublin

E Comerford; J Smith, E O'Brien, R McGowan; N Scully, C Reddin(G Ivory 58mins), R Gaughan; J Whelan, C Mullaly; R Hazley, S Boland(R McDaid ht), N Walsh(C Basquel 31mins); P Hudson(S Cunningham 42mins), M Deegan(K O'Gara ht), C McHugh.