ALL-IRELAND SFC QUALIFIER ROUND FOUR Kildare 0-19 Derry 0-13:KILDARE EMBELLISHED their reputation as qualifier specialists when they confidently out-gunned Derry in their fourth-round tie at Croke Park on Saturday.
Their margin of victory was well deserved as all six starting forwards scored from play. James Kavanagh was hugely impressive up front playing off target man Tomás O’Connor. And yet again their ability to steam roll opposition in the second half was crucial against a Derry team who excelled early on, but later ran out of ideas.
Afterwards, Kildare boss Kieran McGeeney admitted his side were worried about Derry beforehand.
“We knew we were going to have a backlash. They probably knew we would give them a wee bit more space than Donegal (who Kildare meet next). They have quality forwards and we did well to contain them to what we did, so I am happy enough with the boys.”
Down the corridor, John Brennan reflected on a season that had unravelled in frustrating fashion.
His one-year term is now up and, although he proved a popular leader, the controversial penalty decisions that went against them in the Ulster final, the six-day turnaround, and the loss of a crucial first-half goal here to a square ball call threaten to take their toll and tempt him to walk away.
“I’m disillusioned with football at this moment in time and unless I can see that we are allowed to speak as managers and allowed to meet so called ‘officialdom’ . . . I have a standard and it’s why I didn’t go for the Derry job before. I want a standard of management, a standard of playing and a standard of officialdom. There’s not a consistent standard of officialdom,” he said afterwards.
“Losing is disappointing and I don’t like losing. I don’t blame the six-day turnaround. Kildare have played three weeks in a row and maybe they have more expertise at it than we have. I give credit to Kildare. They were far hungrier.”
Television replays showed referee Syl Doyle was right to disallow the 18th-minute palmed goal from Enda Muldoon after a great run from Mark Lynch, with pictures showing Muldoon’s feet just inside the square.
Derry had started strongly. Joe Diver and Michael Friel were dominant at midfield and the surging runs of Declan Mullan, who kicked three points from play, were causing problems.
But McGeeney’s men impressively countered. They went for shorter kickouts and used their half backs to build from deep.
They started to look for good early ball into O’Connor who was feeding the in-form Kavanagh.
Kildare kicked on to lead 0-11 to 0-8 at half-time. Derry began to run out of ideas and their full back was unable to cope with a Kildare attack growing in confidence.
KILDARE: S Connolly; A MacLochlainn, M Foley, H McGrillen (0-1); G White, M O'Flaherty, E Bolton; J Doyle (0-6, all frees), D Flynn; P O'Neill (0-1), E O'Flaherty (0-1), E Callaghan (0-1); R Kelly (0-2), T O'Connor (0-2), J Kavanagh (0-4). Subs: O Lyons for White (23 mins), R Sweeney (0-1) for Flynn (63 mins), D Hendy for McGrillen, F Dowling for E O'Flaherty (both 69 mins).
DERRY: D Devlin; K McGuckin, K McCloy, D McBride; C Kielt, B McGoldrick (0-1), G O'Kane (0-1); J Diver (0-1), M Friel; J Kielt (0-1), M Lynch, SL McGoldrick (0-1); D Mullan (0-3), E Muldoon (0-1), C Gilligan (0-4, three frees). Subs: PJ McCloskey for Friel (40 mins), N Holly for PJ McCloskey (42 mins), M Bateson for J Kielt (44 mins), M Donagh for Lynch (47 mins), C O'Boyle for C Kielt (63 mins).
Referee: S Doyle(Wexford).
