3 days ago
Kildare just about see off Sligo's fightback
A windy afternoon in this roller coaster of an Irish summer led to yet another huge second-half turnaround this Tailteann Cup contest in Roscommon between Sligo and Kildare.
In the end Sligo didn't quite complete their comeback from 15 points adrift against the Lily Whites, so it was Kildare who secured a home quarter-final in the competition and Sligo will instead have to play host to either Carlow, New York or Antrim next weekend in a preliminary quarter-final.
For a Kildare side that is high on talent but equally afflicted with doubt and weak spots, this was a mixed bag of a performance.
Concerns over their inability to score goals has been a feature all year long but the return of Daniel Flynn has certainly made a huge difference in that regard. The rampaging full-forward added 2-3 today to his 2-4 haul against Tipperary last time out, and even with Darragh Kirwan still absent, Brian Flanagan's attack looks a lot more potent with Flynn back in harness.
Against that however must be considered their ongoing issues with two-pointers, as they only scored two in the first half, despite playing with a ferocious breeze that saw Cian Burke easily hit a couple of kickouts down to the Sligo 45m line. One of those was an Alex Beirne free for a 'breach', and that wasn't the first time Sligo were to pay heavily for that infringement. Late in the game when the 15 point lead was cut to two and Sligo had their opponents on the rack, another three-man-up breach allowed Beirne to kick a relieving point that stemmed the tide.
Moreover, Flanagan will look at how Sligo took over at centre field for the final quarter, and how his side coughed up far too many chances. Wides from Alan McLoughlin and Lee Deignan were to prove crucial in the dying minutes, as was Cian Lally's refusal to pull the trigger from 45 metres out with time and space.
Lally scored once in the game, a stunning goal that immediately lit a match under this contest.
Daniel Flynn replied in kind, collecting a pass from Alex Beirne and scoring at the second attempt, after his first effort was parried by Aidan Devaney. Colm Dalton set up James McGrath for their second with Alex Beirne hammering the ball into the roof of the net for their third after 15 minutes.
Crucially however, Kildare struggled to tack on enough points to really and truly put Sligo away. 3-11 to 1-7 at half-time was far from game over, though points from Callum Bolton and Flynn at the start of the second half added an extra few degrees of incline to the hill that Sligo had to climb, and when Flynn got on the end of a team move and finished to the Sligo net with his left ten minutes into the second half, the was soon to be pushed out to 15 points (4-15 to 1-9).
When they sit down to reflect on the game, Sligo will regret that it took them so long to take meaningful bites out of that lead. With just 15 minutes remaining the gap was still 11, Sligo had yet to kick a two-pointer from play, and Kildare were picking off enough scores on the break to keep their Connacht opponents at bay.
But in the modern game, no lead is safe, and three doubles in the space of five minutes, two from the boot of Pat Spillane, gave the crowd plenty to shout about in the closing stages. By then, Sligo had taken control at midfield where Cian Lally and Canice Mulligan were winning the kickout battle, and despite some touch-tight defending from Mark Dempsey, Niall Murphy seemed to be able to find the posts from all sorts of angles.
With five minutes to play, Murphy lobbed up a shot and let the wind do the rest to reduce the gap to two points, 4-17 to 1-24. Kildare supporters might like to think that when the pressure was on, their side stepped up and did what was needed to see out the win.
To those in attendance, it felt a lot more like Sligo had the chances, but they just didn't take them. In a Tailteann Cup where Kildare are the uneasy favourites, both of these counties have the talent to be contenders, but they have shortfalls they'll need to address too.
Kildare: Cian Burke; Mark Dempsey, Brian Byrne, Harry O'Neill; Tommy Gill (0-02), David Hyland, James McGrath (1-00); Kevin Feely, Brendan Gibbons; Colm Dalton (0-03, 1tp), Alex Beirne (1-06, 1tpf, 0-01 45, 0-01 free), Ben McCormack; Ryan Sinkey (0-02), Daniel Flynn (2-03), Brian McLoughlin (0-01).
Subs: Jimmy Hyland for McCormack (2), Niall Kelly (0-01) for Hyland (28), Callum Bolton (0-01) for Gibbins (half-time), Kevin Flynn for Bolton (49), Jack McKevitt for Gill (67).
Sligo: Aidan Devaney; Paul McNamara, Eddie McGuinness, Evan Lyons; Brian Cox, Darragh Cummins, Jack Lavin; Alan Reilly, Patrick O'Connor (0-03); Cian Lally (1-00), David Quinn (0-02), Canice Mulligan (0-02, 1tp); Alan McLoughlin (0-02 frees), Shane Deignan, Niall Murphy (0-10, 1tpf, 0-02 frees).
Subs: Luke Towey for McNamara (half-time), Ross Doherty for Lavin (43), Donal Conlon for Deignan (49), Pat Spillane (0-05, 2tp) for Reilly (49), Lee Deignan for Cummins (67)
Referee: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon).
