Kildare 1-14
Cork 1-8

Kildare maintained a 100 per cent start in Division 2 this afternoon with a convincing victory over Cork in Newbridge.

After cruising past Meath in round one, Cian O'Neill's side kept their foot on the throttle here against the fancied Leesiders by building up a five-point lead in the first-half and all but ensuring the win with a Ben McCormack goal with 20 minutes to go.  

Daniel Flynn had opened the scoring for the home side after two minutes but it was the visitors that led after eight thanks to points from Luke Connolly (free) and a placed ball from Colm O'Neill - starting after an impressive 0-5 haul off the bench against Galway last weekend.

Two fine strikes from McCormack steered the hosts back in front by the 14th minute and they'd go on a run of five unanswered points to take control of proceedings at St Conleth's Park.

Kevin Feely and Neil Flynn (2 frees) helped themselves to a brace each during that run as the visitors struggled to get the ball out of their own defence against the stiff breeze.

A Connolly '45' ended what transpired into a 20-minute scoring drought for Peader Healy's side and Paul Cribbin was able to cancel it out just before half-time, leaving it at 0-8 to 0-3 when the teams went in at the break.

Healy introduced John O'Rourke to his attack for the second-half and his side would be right back in contention after Paul Kerrigan and midfielder Aidan Walsh looped over unanswered points.

There'd be controversy soon after when Daniel Flynn had a goal disallowed on 43 minutes, with referee Cormac Reilly ruling that a the ball had been carried over the sideline in the build-up.

The Lilywhites weren't all that disheartened however, as Tommy Moolick's point for the afternoon would be backed up by a McCormack goal in the 50th minute which seemingly sealed the deal.

The Leesiders forced some cause for concern amongst the home crowd when Connolly's long ball into the square ended up in the net, but the victory would be seen out in convincing fashion by Kildare.

The deadly free taking of Neil Flynn ensured a six-point lead for O'Neill's men heading towards the finish and that's how it stayed until the last whistle.

Kildare - M Donnellan; M O'Grady, D Hyland, O Lyons; J Byrne, E Doyle, K Cribbin; K Feely (0-2), T Moolick (0-1); F Conway, N Kelly, P Cribbin (0-2); N Flynn (0-5, 3f), D Flynn (0-1), B McCormack (1-2). Subs: C McNally for T Moolick, C Healy (0-1f) for F Conway, D Slattery for B McCormack, P Kelly for N Kelly, S Ryan for K Feely (BC), C Hartley for N Flynn.

Cork - R Price; J McLoughlin, Tom Clancy, K Crowley; C Dorman, J Loughrey, Tomas Clancy (0-1); A Walsh (0-1), I Maguire; R Deane, S Powter, M Collins; C O'Neill (0-1f), L Connolly (1-3, 0-2f, 0-1'45), P Kerrigan (0-1). Subs: J O'Rourke for S Powter, Barry O'Driscoll (0-1) for C Dorman, D O'Connor for M Collins, J Mullins for K Crowley, D Og Hodnett for I Maguire, Brian O'Driscoll for C O'Neill.

Referee - C Reilly.

Tweet

Most Read Stories