A great chance for Kildare to go three wins from three against Leitrim

From playing under the shadow of Ben Bulmin to the beautiful surroundings of Ballinamore.

Round 3 of the Allianz Football League (Division 3) and Kildare are heading to Lovely Leitrim, Ballinamore in fact this time around, having played these boys last season in the Tailteann Cup.

That game, played on 1 July last season, the final group game in the Tailteann Cup, and played at Glennon Bros Pearse Park, Longford, saw The Lilies advance to the quarter-final on final score line of 1-16 to 0-12 with Darragh Kirwan leading the charge firing over seven points.

While that winning margin looks decent, it was not as comfortable as the final score line might suggest.

Leading by six at the break Kildare had to withstand a Leitrim comeback with just two points separating the sides on 55 minutes. However Glenn Ryan's side upped their game again, hitting six points in a row to clinch a quarter-final spot.

With two wins now under their belt in this AFL having defeated Fermanagh and Sligo, no doubt The Lilies will head to Ballinamore in confident mood.

And while they certainly impressed in their opening game against Fermanagh in Cedral St Conleth's Park, they were somewhat lethargic against Sligo two weeks ago.

Sligo have always been a bit of a bogey side for Kildare and to get away with a six point win, despite leading by just a single point with some five minutes remaining, before that man, Darragh Kirwan, struck with a brilliant goal, linking up with substitute Ben McCormack, it was the score that finally put the Sligo challenge to bed.

Manager Brian Flanagan, said after the game he was reasonably happy with the display, admitting that Sligo certainly put it up to his side but added “it is games like this that you learn from, games like this that you see what the players have and games like this that builds up character.”

Kildare picked up no additional injuries, which is a big plus and with a few lads expected back such as Harry O'Neill, Mark Dempsey and Eoin Lawler all three having completed their re-hab from hamstring injuries.

Leitrim lost out two weeks ago, somewhat heavily, to Clare on a final score line of 2-17 to 0-10 that game played in Ennis.

The previous week Leitrim's game against Laois was off due to the weather but was played last Saturday and resulted in the Connacht boys taking a mother-and-father of a thumping from a rampant Laois side.

At one stage Laois led 3-9 to 0-0 and that after 24 minutes with the final score reading Laois 3-20 Leitrim 0-6.

No doubt Leitrim will be doing their utmost to improve on that particular display but have no doubt Kildare will be expected to win this one and with it comfortably.

The new rules, from what we have witnessed to date, certainly make the game more exciting but suddenly a four or six point lead is not as comfortable as it had been heretofore.

One consequence from the kick-out that must now travel beyond the 40m arc is that the midfield area is becoming more and more crowded.

High fielding is a real added bonus but with so many bodies in the one area, a great emphasis now needs to be on gaining possession from the breaking ball.

A goal keeper can hardly be finger-pointed now if his enforced long kick-out is not won by one of his team mates, it all comes down to gaining possession, more times than not, from the breaking ball.

Against Fermanagh a few weeks ago Kildare gained some 60-70 per cent of that breaking ball in the opening half and it was from here they had the platform to attack and attack.

That was missing in the Sligo game and thus the scoring rate was slower and not as plentiful, even allowing for the extremely heavy pitch on the day that had taken a lot of rain from the previous night.

Sunday's game against Leitrim should tell us a lot more. Kildare will go into this one, once again as firm favourites to make it three wins in a row and on what we have seen they should be capable of doing that.

Darragh Kirwan is playing great ball at the moment and if a few more lads can step up from the Sligo game they could go into Round 4 the following week when Laois are the visitors to Cedral St Conleth's Park, that one under lights with a 7pm throw-in but for now all thoughts are on Ballinamore, a first visit from what I can recall, so another county ground ticked off the venue bucket list.

Throw-in on Sunday in Ballinamore is 2 pm.