Kildare progressed comfortably to the last round of the football Qualifiers with a facile 2-24 to 0-11 demolition of Longford at Mullingar.

The winners will now face either the Leinster final or Munster final losers for a place in this year's All-Ireland quarter-finals, while the losers go home tonight sporting a second shiner to go with the one delivered by the Dubs in May. Of course, the Short Grass County won't be rubbing it in ... they know only too well how it feels to be on the wrong end of a 19-point drubbing!

5,914 hardy souls turned out to watch a match that was played in dreadful, O'Byrne-Cup-like conditions. Some summer we're having.

Eamonn Callaghan's injury-time major ensured Jason Ryan's charges of a 1-10 to 0-5 interval advantage.

With the unseasonable wind and rain at their backs, the victors roared out of the blocks to lead by 0-7 to 0-1 after quarter of an hour. Eoghan O'Flaherty (2) and Paul Cribbin hit the first three scores and the Lilywhites kicked on with efforts from Padraig O'Neill, Niall Kelly (2) and Cribbin after Brian Kavanagh had opened the midlanders' account from a free.

After O'Neill left the action due to a black card, Cribbin's third point left seven between the teams. A brace of Kavanagh frees in the 24th and 26th minutes gave the underdogs a glimmer of hope. Callaghan and Alan Smith pointed either side of a fourth successful Kavanagh free to make it double scores, 0-10 to 0-5, and the first nail in the coffin arrived on the stroke of the break when Callaghan's shot went to the Longford net off Barry Gilleran to leave eight between the teams at the turnaround.

Mark Donnellan ('45'), debutant Mark Sherry and O'Flaherty tagged on three more Kildare points in as many minutes at the start of the second half to end any lingering doubts as to the inevitable outcome of the game.

Rory Connor and Dessie Reynolds hit back but the excellent Cribbin and O'Flaherty kept Kildare in total control. Goalkeeper Donnellan's second successful '45' extended the margin to twelve points ten minutes into the second half.

Cribbin's black card was just a minor inconvenience for the Lilywhites, for whom Smith slotted the second goal on 48 minutes. Ollie Lyons added another Kildare point and it went from bad to worse for Jack Sheedy's team when Diarmuid Masterson was sent off for the second successive weekend before Kelly made it 2-18 to 0-8.

Longford's Diarmuid Masterson gets a second yellow and subsequent red card. ©INPHO/James Crombie.

Cathal McNally and substitute Mikey Conway (free) got in on the act and points were shared at either end with the match long since over as anything remotely resembling a meaningful contest. Emmet Bolton's point put 20 between them with four minute left.

Ronan McEntire and Kavanagh (free) hit a couple more consolation scores for the losers as the light started to fade at Cusack Park; but a Conway free closed the scoring and, in the end, it was Longford's lights that went out as the Lilywhites marched on.

Kildare - M Donnellan (0-2'45); C Fitzpatrick, M O'Grady, O Lyons (0-1); K Murnaghan, E Doyle, E Bolton (0-1); T Moolick, P Cribbin (0-4); P O'Neill (0-2), E O'Flaherty (0-5, 4f), C McNally (0-1); N Kelly (0-2), A Smith (1-1), E Callaghan (1-1). Subs: M Sherry (0-1) for P O'Neill (BC), H Lynch for P Cribbin (BC), M Conway (0-3f) for E Callaghan, P Kelly for E Doyle, P Fogarty for A Smith, C O'Donoghue for E Bolton.

Longford - P Collum; F Battrim, B Gilleran, C Farrelly; C P Smyth, B O'Farrell, D Masterson; M Quinn, K Diffley; S Doyle, R McEntire (0-1), D Reynolds (0-1); R Connor (0-1), B Kavanagh (0-7, 5f), L Connerton (0-1). Subs: D Brady for C P Smyth, P Foy for K Diffley, P Gill for S Doyle, T Gallagher for F Battrim, R McNerney for R Connor.

Referee - D O'Mahoney.

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