Kerry 0-9 Kildare 0-8:KERRY, DESPITE the absence of the bulk of their forward sextet, might have been expected to easily polish off relegation-haunted Kildare at Austin Stack Park, Tralee, on Saturday, but the All-Ireland champions rode their luck and Kildare deserved something for their efforts.
It was a mediocre game. Kerry kicked seven first-half wides as they played with the wind and a 0-7 to 0-4 lead was precarious considering the lack of firepower up front by the home side, for whom only Donnacha Walsh, with three points from play, shone.
It was the usual suspects that saved Kerry at the back, where Marc Ó Se, Tom O'Sullivan, Tomás Ó Sé and Tommy Griffin were imperious while Darragh Ó Sé was the dominant figure in a jungle of big men.
The Kerry manager, Pat O'Shea, admitted while the win was the most important thing, the fact Kerry did not build a bigger first-half lead was a concern.
"That's a worrying aspect from our point of view. We knew Kildare would be tough because they drew away to Tyrone, and beat Donegal at home and it was just two poor results in their last two games that has them where they are. They were obviously going to be wounded coming down here so they would have felt that they had to come out and perform and they have good players too.
"Obviously it was not a pretty game - it was a tough physical game - there was a lot of hits and off the ball as well but that is football and you have to win every way and tonight was a bit ugly."
The new Kildare boss, Kieran McGeeney, was disappointed to have lost. "We thought we could have won and we got going when we got back to the basics and tackled hard. We started well in the first half, but Kerry won a good deal of possession in the first 10 or 15 minutes. Again we were wasteful of our chances up front and we had enough in both the first half and the second to go on and win the game."
Kildare had goal chances in that opening half when James Kavanagh in the 16th minute and Dermot Earley minutes later got through and they also had claims of a penalty turned down.
Pádraig Reidy, playing out around midfield for Kerry, was causing havoc with his forays into attack and only wasteful shooting with the wind kept Kildare in the game, while Kieran Donaghy was getting little quality ball.
Bryan Sheehan with two frees and one each from play by Walsh and Darren O'Sullivan had Kerry 0-4 to 0-0 clear after 15 minutes, as Anthony Rainbow, playing his 101st league game for Kildare, was cutting out some dangerous Kerry attacks.
Wing back Brian Flanagan opened Kildare's account in the 22nd minute and then two frees from substitute Tadhg Fennin and another free from John Doyle saw Kildare close the gap. But a pointed 45 from Sheehan and two fine Walsh points saw Kerry lead 0-7 to 0-4 at half-time and Kildare with the wind in their favour in the second half must have fancied the chances of an upset.
Kildare were the better side on the restart as Early caught great ball at midfield while Kerry just had no firepower up front. In fact Kerry faded out of the game.
Daniel Bohane and Sheehan with a 50th-minute free got Kerry's final score as O'Shea summoned Aidan O'Mahony and Mike Frank Russell from the bench as the home side stuttered to victory. Kildare added points from Earley, Fennin and Doyle but they could not grab a deserved equaliser.
KERRY:D Murphy; P Reidy, M Ó Sé, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé, R Ó Flatharta, T Griffin; D Ó Sé, S Scanlon; D Bohane (0-1) , D Walsh (0-3), E Brosnan; D O'Sullivan (0-1, free), K Donaghy, B Sheehan (0-4, three frees, one 45). Subs: A O'Mahony for Ó Flatharta (45 mins); A Maher for Bohane (56 mins); MF Russell for D Walsh (55 mins).
KILDARE:T Corley; E Bolton, D Hendy, E Callaghan; A Rainbow, A McLoughlin, B Flanagan (0-1); D Flynn, D Earley (0-1); R Sweeney, M Conway, K Ennis (0-3, two frees); J Doyle (0-2, one free), J Kavanagh (0-1), M O'Flaherty. Subs: T Fennin fort Ennis (23 mins); P Mullarkey for Kavanagh (60 min).
Referee:R Hickey (Clare).
