Classy Kildare too Much for Laois

GAA Football All-Ireland Qualifiers Round 2
Laois 0-10 Kildare 3-16

Kildare delivered possibly the performance of the 2011 GAA Football Championship to brush aside the challenge of neighbours Laois by 15 points at Portlaoise on Saturday night.

If there were questions surrounding the Lilywhites’ ability to recover from the narrow Leinster semi-final defeat to Dublin, Kieran McGeeney’s side answered them emphatically in dismantling the O'Moore County.

Having reached the All-Ireland semi-finals through the Qualifiers last year, Kildare will once again be favoured to reach the latter stages of the Championship through the ‘back door’ following an accomplished performance.

For McGeeney, there was the added satisfaction of getting one over his former Armagh team-mate Justin McNulty, whose first year in charge of Laois ended in disappointing circumstances.

A relatively uneventful first half was lit up by two Kildare goals, the first coming from the boot of Johnny Doyle after Fionn Dowling had been fouled, his penalty cooly dispatched to the bottom corner.

Tomás O’Connor had been instrumental in that first goal and the big full forward scored the second, fetching a high ball and forcing the it past Laois goalkeeper Eoin Culliton after he had caused havoc in the O’Moore County defence, his first attempt having been blocked by Mark Timmons.

MJ Tieney kept the home side in touch with two brilliantly taken frees, one from his hands and the other from the ground, but Eoghan O’Flaherty and Eamonn Callaghan kicked late points to leave Kildare 2-3 to 0-6 ahead at the break.

Ollie Lyons opened the scoring in the second half with the first point of his inter-county career, before Hugh Lynch, man of the match after a superb performance in midfield, nudged Kildare five points clear.

Laois, however, struggled badly to break down a watertight Kildare defence, and despite points from Pádraig Clancy, Donie Kingston and Brendan Quigley, they never really looked like causing the visitors too much trouble.

By now, Kildare were starting to kick into top gear, Eoghan O’Flaherty and Pádraig O'Neill kicking points from play and Doyle finding his range from frees.

Niall Donoher’s 55th minute point proved to be Laois’s last as Kildare kicked 1-8 without reply in the final 15 minutes to run out comfortable winners.

Their third goal came from the boot of substitiute James Kavanagh, who took a pass from O’Neill in his stride and slammed a fine shot past Eoin Culliiton. the Lois 'keeper.

Kavanagh, Mark Scanlon, Doyle (2) all added late points as Kildare added a coat of gloss to the scoreline helping their side into Round 3 of the Qualifiers.

Kildare: S Connolly; A Mac Lochlainn, M Foley, H McGrillen; G White, M O'Flaherty, O Lyons (0-1); J Doyle (1-4, 1 pen, 4f), H Lynch (0-3); P O'Neill (0-2), E O'Flaherty (0-2, 1 '45), E Callaghan (0-1); R Kelly, T O'Connor (1-0), F Dowling (0-1).

Subs: J Kavanagh (1-1) for Kelly (44), T O'Neill for Lyons (59), M Conway for Dowling (64), M Scanlon for M O'Flaherty, B Flanagan (0-01) for White (69).

Laois: E Culliton; C Healy, K Meaney, M Timmons; D Strong, S Julian, P McMahon; P Clancy (0-1), B Quigley (0-1); C Begley, J O'Loughlin, N Donoher (0-2); R Munnelly (0-1), D Kingston (0-3, 2f), MJ Tierney (0-2, 2f).

Subs: C Boyle for Healy (8), K Lillis for Strong (HT), D Carroll for Tierney (51), G Kavanagh for Clancy (55), B Brennan for Lillis (59).