Impressive Kildare ease into Leinster semi-final with plenty to spare
Kildare 1-16
Westmeath 0-8
Leinster MFC quarter-final
Kildare kept their bid for a second successive Leinster minor title on track with a comfortable 11-point victory over a wasteful Westmeath side in St Conleth's Park on Saturday afternoon. Once again, it was the duo of Jimmy Hyland and Ciaran Kelly who led the way for Kildare in the scoring stakes as they contributed 1-10 between them.
Their prowess on front of goal was a stark contrast to that of the Westmeath forwards who consistently wasted the opportunities they created, and they were well and truly beaten by the time they went into the break facing a deficit of 1-7 0-2.
Kildare couldn't have asked for a better start as they were awarded a penalty after just 58 seconds when Jack Robinson was hauled down by Ben Treanor inside the large parallelogram, leaving referee Chris Dwyer with no other option but to award the spot kick. Kelly stepped up to confidently slam the ball into the bottom left corner, propelling Kildare into a lead that they held for the remainder of the game.
When Conor McCormack pointed a free within a minute at the other end it looked like Westmeath might present a meaningful challenge, but scores from Hyland, David Kelly and a fine effort from Brian McLoughlin pushed Kildare five clear after just 13 minutes.
The writing was on the wall for Westmeath at that stage, as Kildare's efficient half-forward line of Cian Costigan, Jack Robinson and David Kelly consistently supplied Hyland and Kelly with good, quick ball. The inside duo pointed a free each, before Kelly added another superb score from play to further enhance the Kildare lead.
Westmeath had endured a spell of 24 minutes without a score, though they did have plenty of chances to rectify that, but their shooting was poor during that period. It eventually took a stunning score from the right wing courtesy of wing-back James Maxwell to break the duck, but that was immediately cancelled out by a Kelly free at the opposite end.
Any lingering prospects that Westmeath had of coming back into the contest were soon quashed upon the restart as a brace of scores from Kelly, one from a free and one from a '45, stretched the gap to a seemingly unassailable 10 points.
There was a moment of extreme confusion during the opening stages of the second half as McLoughlin burst through and drove a powerful shot towards the roof of the goal. The ball seemed to ripple the back of the net and bounce back out, though no signal for a goal was given and played was waved on to the amazement of most spectators in St Conleth's Park.
It didn't make much of a difference though, as Kildare kept plugging away and the scoreboard was constantly ticking over. The best score of the second half came when Hyland delivered an inch-perfect pass to Tony Archbold, and the wing-back curled over beautifully from 35 yards.
Westmeath came close to finding the net twice in the second half, but were denied by Tom Connolly and goalkeeper Luke Mullins on separate occasions. Connolly was on hand to produce a stunning block on a goalbound effort from Daniel Reid, though Dylan Carroll followed up with a point on the rebound.
Jack Robinson, who was one of Kildare's best players on the day, was continuing to torment the Westmeath defence, and he delivered a fine pass to set up Hyland for his third score of the day 10 minutes into the second half.
Robinson got on the scoresheet himself soon after as he slotted over a brace of points, while McLoughlin also added his second f the game. At the other end Westmeath were starting to threaten a bit more, and although Maitiu Scully and Dylan Carroll raised white flags, they looked a beaten team.
Everything seemed to be going wrong for the Lake County youngsters, and when they were presented with the opportunity to mount some respectability on the scoreboard they were even denied that. Tom Molloy had a chance to find the net from a penalty, but Luke Mullins expertly saved down to his right to keep his clean sheet in tact.
A brace of Hyland points finished out the scoring for Kildare as they eased towards their 11-point winning margin and confidently into a Leinster semi-final.
Scorers for Kildare: C Kelly 1-5(3f, 1'45), J Hyland 0-5(3f), B McLoughlin and J Robinshon 0-2 each, D Kelly and T Archbold 0-1 each.
Scorers for Westmeath: D Carroll 0-3(2f), J Maxwell, C McCormack(1f), A Loughlin Stones, M Scully and D Reid 0-1 each.
Kildare
L Mullins; J O'Toole, N Brennan, D Shaw; T Archbold(J Gibbons 42mins), T Connolly, S Doran; D Marnell(K Foley 58mins), A Masterson; J Robinson, D Kelly(J Burke 23mins), C Costigan(N Murphy 47mins); C Kelly, B McLoughlin, J Hyland.
Westmeath
DJ Fedronas; S Clinton, G Carr, B Treanor; J Maxwell, E Nally(E Nally 16mins b/c(M Scully42mins)), P Maxwell; N Cully, A Loughlin Stones; F Ayorinde, C Mannion, D Hynes(D Carroll h/t); T Molloy, C McCormack(D Heavin h/t), D Reid.