ANY of the well-documented misgivings Mick O'Dwyer had about becoming KiIdare's football manager for the second time were swept aside, on his own admission at Kingscourt yesterday.

"It's a long time since I have seen a Kildare team play with such fire and spirit," he said after a truly exhilarating display that crushed the Cavan challenge with unexpected authority in a free-moving but sometimes robust National Football League match.

The two full-backs, Kildare's Richard Coyle and Cavan's Phil Smith, were sent off in separate second-half incidents in a game that could hardly be described as dirty. Westmeath referee Pat Casserly made a number of bookings and dismissed Coyle in 44 minutes and Smith in 49 minutes.

The defining feature of the game was the fluency of a young and highly-motivated Kildare team that was alert in defence, workmanlike in midfield and quick and intelligent in attack.

The Cavan rearguard had the most onerous of tasks in trying to curb the smart work of wing forwards Pauric Graven and Leonard Donlon.

The work-rate of attack leader Declan Kerrigan augmented the experience of inside forwards Paul McCormack, Martin Lynch and Johnny McDonald, to Cavan's repeated discomfort. Problems were perpetually cropping up for the Cavan defenders who often had little option but to resort to petty fouling.

This gambit was a huge mistake, with a new place-kicking talent available to Kildare in Graven, who was impressive from long range and a variety of difficult angles.

McDonald, however, fittingly shaded the scoring honours by scoring seven points, (including one from a free) against six for last year's minor Graven.

For Cavan, the determined work of Stephen King did not find adequate support in mid-field. A missed penalty chance in the seventh minute, when Ronan Carolan's poorly-placed spot-kick was parried away by Christy Byrne, was only the first of many problems for the home team who were generally a disappointment to their followers in the crowd of 6,000.

They subsequently lacked a reliable place-kicker; Carolan and Peter Reilly were equally inept from both sides.

An off-form Dermot McCabe was denied a score when he could only manage to knock a Carolan 45 off the crossbar in the first half.

Kildare, however, created far more chances. In the final moments of the first half Paul McCormack received a brilliant pass from Martin Lynch, but McCorsmack's low shot was somehow saved by Paul Dowd with his feet. Moments earlier McCormack set up McDonald only for him to hook his shot over the bar.

Kildare could thus have been more comfortably ahead than 0-10 to 0-5 at the interval.

Cavan confirmed they were in serious trouble shortly after the interval when, after replacing late call-up Paul Murphy at cornerback with Terry Farrelly, their two-goal hero against Meath, Finbarr Crowe was called ashore and replaced by Finbarr Cahill.

The home side began to find it increasingly difficult to put anything resembling a defence-splitting move together. Finally, a third substitute, Michael Graham, got lucky for Cavan's goal.

This proved very much a case of too little too late. Graham was untypically left unmarked outside the Kildare square for the score.

This goal served only to spur Kildare into further action and three points in as many minutes by McCormack, Whelan and Donlon put the seal on a comprehensive win.

O'Dwyer admitted that he was a little apprehensive coming to the fixture without three of his best players, Eddie McCormack, Tom Harris and John Finn.