By John Roddy
LOUTH 1-16 KILDARE 0-14
FOOTBALL can be cruel at times and on Sunday afternoon Kildare keeper Shane McCormack was its victim.
The Allenwood man was deceived by the flight of a speculative longrange shot from corner back Declan Byrne and after barely skimming the inside of the upright, it wound up in the roof of the net. Even at halftime in this mish-mash of a match, with Kildare leading by 0-8 to 0-7, the conventional wisdom was that a goal would win this one.
Sadly for Kildare, so it proved. The goal merely served to slam down the lid on the Kildare coffin, because truth to tell the Lilies had been gradually losing their way since the sending off of centreback Brian Flanagan for a second yellow card, 12 minutes into the second half.
“It wasn’t a bad tackle but still it was a yellow card tackle and that’s just the long and the short of it. Brian knows that,” said manager Kieran McGeeney.
The Armagh man was disappointed at the way Kildare heads dropped after the goal and with the number of scoreable frees conceded as he felt that Kildare had been working hard on their tackling over the last few weeks.
Finding fault with the distribution of the ball into the forwards, McGeeney pointed out that on many occasions Kildare players in the inside of the attack were left chasing ball that they had very little chance of getting.
“Our distribution from the half back midfi eld area into the full-forward line in the fi rst half was poor and it went downhill again in the second half.”
While Kildare may have had a slight wind advantage playing into the Kilcullen end in the first half it was a lively Wee County outfit who were early off the mark with points from Brian White (free), wing-back Ray Finnegan and Colin Judge (free) before Dermot Earley opened for Kildare with a soaring point after five minutes. It was to typify the skipper’s performance.
His workrate, aerial dominance allied to a newfound accuracy which was to yield him a second point later on, shone like a beacon throughout. Rainbow started a move finished smartly by Ronan Walsh, before Robert Kelly levelled matters on three points apiece with 12 minutes played. Brian White missed a kickable Louth point before Karl Ennis finished a good move with a well-worked score and the lead for Kildare at the end of the first quarter-hour. With Emmet Bolton getting himself into the book, Colin Judge duly penalised the error and again the sides were level on four apiece.
Kildare tacked on a couple of bad wides before Ennis fired over their fifth point following a movement initiated by Daryl Flynn but too much open space in the middle third of the field allowed the visitors’ Brian White the chance to kick another equaliser. That score, seven minutes from the break, saw Kildare move up a gear with good scores from Earley, Keith Cribbin and Ronan Walsh to open up a three point gap.
It was to prove something of a false dawn as Louth kept plugging away with centre-forward Andy McDonnell pouncing when Mick Foley dropped the ball after a great catch. He added another simple score before the break to leave the minimum between them.
Kildare reopened brightly with early points from O’Neill, taking a pass from Flanagan, and Robert Kelly following an Earley run. Ronan Carroll kept Louth in touch with a lovely angled score following a tidy move, while the veteran JP Rooney once again left a point between the sides with an hard earned score.
Emmett Bolton popped up to raise a good Kildare white flag though his reward was to be being replaced by David Lyons.
At the other end Brian White angled over a nice free before Flanagan was dismissed for a clumsy but relatively harmless challenge, with Robert Kelly moving back to the heart of the defence – where he acquitted himself well, fronting a magnificent performance from Gary White.
Still relatively cruising, Kildare had Karl Ennis knock over a free won by Cribbin but Louth were not going away. Colin Judge tapped over a free engineered by the wily Rooney.
Slowly but surely the numerical advantage began to tell as corner back Byrne kicked a huge point to level matters on 0-12 apiece. Rooney with a free and Rainbow from play ensured parity continued and the latter’s was a fine effort.
Sub James Kavanagh restored Kildare’s lead with virtually his first touch following great work by the big men, Sweeney and Earley.
Then came that goal out of nothing and suddenly Kildare’s day had changed utterly. Three Louth points followed from Judge (free), Carroll and Lennon which proved the final nails in the Lilies’ coffin, giving management plenty of food for thought for the opening National League outing against Down this Sunday.
“I think tiredness is an excuse, I’m sure Louth aren’t sitting on their hands during the week. We looked tired and even with 14 men they were doing the right things but then when the goal went in there were still three minutes left there to get two points if you keep your head cool but that’s some of the stuff we have to learn as a team,” said McGeeney.
Looking back on the Portlaoise debacle, the manager confirmed that Morgan O’Flaherty’s appeal against an eight week suspension went in on Sunday.
“The dogs on the street know Morgan didn’t do anything. We’re hoping he’ll be back for next week but that doesn’t mean that common sense will prevail. Everybody’s out there looking to hang somebody else but I’m not big into that.
“In fairness to Johnny, all Johnny done was get a hiding. In fairness he’s captain of the team and he’s taken it on the chin, that’s the type of fella he is. I think it would be unfair for Morgan to let him go down the river for that.”
Looking ahead to the Down game, McGeeney is expecting a huge effort from James McCartan’s men.
“They’ll come like a steam train,” he said. “You’ve Martin Clarke and John Clarke back in the team that seems to give them more playmaking in the half-forward line. That frees up Coulter inside and with Cumiskey back as well, Gordon and Rogers in midfield, they have a fairly formidable outfit together at this stage. We would need to improve a hell of a lot if we’re looking to make any sort of impact on that game at all.”
The Clarkes, Marty and John are back in the team and when you throw in a new manager all out for his first league win as well as experienced hands such as Benny Coulter and Dan Gordon then you realise that that performance out there today won’t do at all.”