Kildare trounce lowly Longford in Tailteann opener

Tailteann Cup Group 1 Round 1

Kildare 3-25

Longford 1-11

Kildare are back kicking points once again and, after a year or more of poor wides and bland attacking, seeing 3-25 put up in The Lilies favour was an undoubted catharsis for the fans who made their way to Manguard Park.

The Lilies tally of 3-25 at their new venue would be just nine points fewer than their 'home' tally across the entire national league. Kildare registered just 1-40 across four games in Netwatch Cullen Park  in Division 2.

It was hard to be overly impressed with the entire occasion, but it was also difficult to begrudge Kildare fans, and indeed the team, the enjoyment of it after a bruising year.

The ball was thrown-in and, after 90 seconds of tame Longford possession, Kildare turned them over and headed up the field. Darragh Kirwan opened the scoring with a high and looping effort that fell over the bar.

Kevin Feely did what he does best and rose high to claim a mark from 40m out just a minute later. The Athy man took the chance he created in fine style too as he stroked his effort between the posts.

A man making a name for himself for long-range scores of late is Aaron Masterson and he added to his reputation with another fine point to make it 0-3 to no score after five minutes.

Longford offered little threat with over half of their 11 points coming from frees and Kildare’s relative sternness facing a clear lack of cutting edge made it a simple afternoon for the home side.

Those frees would get Longford back to within two however on 17 minutes at 0-5 to 0-3. While Kildare, namely Kirwan and Feely, were enjoying kicking pretty points at one end, they were still giving away silly frees at the other. Darren Gallagher and Dylan Farrell were the men for Longford that would take those chances when they came.

The Lilies would take over from this point on with Kirwan continuing to turn on the style in the first half. There were some lovely points registered in this game, but it would be misleading not to mention the lack of pressure they were kicked under. Longford looked miles off their opponents, in both quality and athleticism. 

Kirwan’s points were accompanied with scores from Ryan Houlihan, Paddy Dermott and Shane Farrell as the meagre crowd in Hawkfield thrilled in seeing the white flag being raised for their team so frequently.

The less than capacity crowd in Manguard Park would get the rare joy of joys of a goal in the 25th minute of this game. A slick Kildare passage of play was shifted from Daniel Flynn to Houlihan and finished with Paddy Woodgate, who had a simple finish to round off the move. The Raheens forward’s goal made it 1-10 to 0-3.

Longford remained remarkably open throughout this game and it was a perfect exercise in confidence boosting for Kildare as they took aim at the posts under a lot less pressure than they had been used to in recent weeks.

Kildare’s entire front six would get on the scoresheet in the first half as they kicked further ahead in this game. The first half would be closed with two points from the energetic Jack Sargent, whose scores sent The Lilies in with a commanding 1-16 to 0-5 lead.

The break brought about plenty of chats as the glass half full’s and the glass half empties met to converse. 

“Unbelievable, they are flying,” said the optimist.

“Sure it's only Longford,” replied his friend.

Longford were undoubtedly limited and, while I don’t think this is a Kildare performance that deserves endless praise, if it does something for their confidence moving forward, then it has served its purpose. Kildare are in rebuild mode and the foundations from the bottom up.

That being said, on a scale from training session to Championship match, the second half certainly looked more like the former.

Kildare were displaying a discomfitingly familiar lack of lustre, but this time it was because they had the game won. Flashes of showboating early in the half drew the ire of many onlookers as all concerned need not get carried away. It was a brief passage of ‘trying things’ that one would assume was stamped out from the sideline.

The second half procession saw The Lilies add points through Tony Archbold (twice), Flynn and Kirwan again before Paddy Woodgate got Kildare’s second goal. 

The next major incident would be Longford hitting the net themselves as Kildare fumbled the ball at the back before Darren Gallagher finished low into the net. 

It was a concerning flash of ill-concentration, but Paddy McDermott would put that to the back of everyone’s mind again with a brilliant goal to close out the game. The Naas man wove his way through the Longford defence before coolly side footing past Patrick Collum.

McDermott’s goal brought his tally to 1-2 and, after a couple of fine points earlier in the day, it was safe to say that he had enjoyed his role further up the field. It would be the last score of the game as Kildare ran out 3-25 to 1-11 winners.

Scorers: Kildare, Paddy Woodgate 2-1, Darragh Kirwan 0-6, Paddy McDermott 1-2, Kevin Feely 0-4 (0-2 mark), Jack Sargent 0-2, Daniel Flynn 0-2, Tony Archbold 0-2, Aaron Masterson 0-1, Ryan Houlihan 0-1, Shane Farrell 0-1, Darragh Swords 0-1, Rian Teahan 0-1, Kevin Flynn 0-1.

Longford, Darren Gallagher 1-4 (0-4 frees), Dylan Farrell 0-3 (0-2 frees), Joseph Hagan 0-2, Aaron Farrell 0-2.

KILDARE: Mark Donnellan; Ryan Houlihan, Mick O'Grady, Ryan Burke; Tony Archbold, Brian Byrne, Jack Sargent; Aaron Masterson, Brendan Gibbons; Shane Farrell, Darragh Kirwan, Paddy McDermott; Paddy Woodgate, Daniel Flynn, Kevin Feely. Subs: Kevin Flynn for Brendan Gibbons (44 minutes), Killian Galligan for Tony Archbold (52 minutes), Darragh Swords for Daniel Flynn (54 minutes), Eoin Doyle for Ryan Burke (58 minutes), Rian Teahan for Darragh Kirwan (62 minutes).

LONGFORD: Patrick Collum; Patrick Fox, Oisín O'Toole, Bryan Masterson; Aaron Farrell, Ryan Moffett, Dessie Reynolds; Darren Gallagher, Dylan Farrell; Mark Hughes, Michael Quinn, Joseph Hagan; Daniel Reynolds, Daniel Mimnagh, Keelin McGann. Subs: Paddy Kiernan for Daniel Reynolds (Half-time), Enda Macken for Keelin McGann (42 minutes), Cathal McCabe for Michael Quinn (50 minutes), Jack Macken for Daniel Mimnagh (57 minutes), Ruairí Harkin for Joseph Hagan (62 minutes).

Referee: Brendan Griffin (Kerry)