Laois no match for Kildare in one sided rout
Kevin Feely battling hard for Kildare Photo: Sean Brilly
Kildare franked their promotion credentials with a comprehensive dismantling of neighbours Laois in front of a crowd of 6,950 at Cedral St Conleth’s Park. It was sweet revenge for their Tailteann Cup exit to the O’Moore men last June.
It was the Lilywhites fourth win from four under new manager Brian Flanagan and the under-20 All Ireland winning manager will have been delighted with a performance of pace, athleticism and no little panache, with eleven different players on the scoresheet and nineteen of their scores coming from play.
Kildare laid down a marker in the opening five minutes as they raced into a five-point to no score lead with Ben McCormack shooting a fine two-pointer and veteran Niall Kelly adding two single scores from play to add to Callum Bolton’s opener.
The normally accurate Mark Barry had a touch of the ‘yips’ early on with wides from a couple of 20-metre frees to the right of the posts but Ronan Coffey got Laois off the mark with a ninth minute effort from just inside the arc.
Kildare were dominant around the middle and moved the ball quickly through the lines. A second two-pointer from impressive midfielder Bolton and a close-range free from Beirne made it 0-8 to 0-1 after twelve minutes.
The home side became wasteful themselves in the remainder of the opening half but added scores from Beirne, McCormack, Darragh Swords and David Hyland from play gave them a commanding 0-12 to 0-3 interval advantage, Laois’s only responses coming from two Barry frees.
Kildare scored seven of the first eight second half points to put the game to bed, with substitute Brian McLoughlin landing two fine long-range scores and Kevin Feely adding two more.
Substitute Ryan Sinkey came closest to a home goal when almost accidentally with a point attempt that rebounded off the crossbar.
Laois finished strongly but their five points in the final ten minutes were academic with his side well beaten on the night.
Didier Cordonnier 0-1 (’45); Ryan Burke, Mick O’Grady, Brian Byrne; Jack McKevitt, James McGrath, David Hyland 0-1; Callum Bolton 0-2 (tp), Cathal Hagney 0-2; Colm Dalton, Alex Beirne 0-2 (1f), Darragh Swords 0-2; Ben McCormack 0-3 (1tp), Kevin Feely 0-2, Niall Kelly 0-3. Subs: Brian McLoughlin 0-2 for McCormack 42, Ryan Sinkey for Dalton 43, Daniel Flynn for Bolton 55, Mark Dempsey for O’Grady 61, Niall Dolan 0-1 for Hagney 66.
Killian Roche; Ben Dempsey, Trevor Collins, Simon Fingleton; Pa Kirwan 0-1, Pat O’Sullivan, Brian Byrne; Seamus Lacey 0-1, Damon Larkin; Kevin Swayne, Ronan Coffey 0-2, Danny O’Reilly; Mark Barry 0-3 (2fs), Conor Heffernan 0-1, Niall Corbet.
Subs: Josh Hogan 0-1 for O’Sullivan HT, Ryan Brady for O’Reilly 50, Jonah Kelly for Byrne 59, Fionn Holland for Corbet 59, Cathal Lee for Coffey 67.
Conor Lane (Cork).
