Senior Footballers defeat Kildare in the All Ireland SFC round 2

DUBLIN 0-22 KILDARE 0-13

Dublin proved too strong for Kildare in their All Ireland Senior Football Championship Round 2 encounter, prevailing by nine points at UPMC Nowlan Park on Saturday afternoon.

After a relatively even opening quarter, the Dubs gradually began to assume control of the contest, leading by a healthy five-point margin by half-time.

While the Lilies enjoyed a bright start to the second-half, they failed to translate some consistent pressure into sufficient scores, allowing Dublin to regain their dominance to ease home with plenty to spare.

Colm Basquel took a decent chunk of the plaudits in attack, finishing the game with five points from play while Con O’Callaghan and Sean Bugler also impressed up front, with the former scoring four points in an influential showing at centre-forward in the first-half.

It was the Cuala player that opened the scoring with a fisted effort in the 2^nd minute with Kildare levelling matters through Ben McCormack two minutes later.

The trend was et as Basquel and Darragh Kirwan exchanged points within minutes of each other with O’Callaghan edging Dublin back in front before a Paddy Woodgate free restored parity by the 10^th minute.

Much of Dublin’s attacking play was through O’Callaghan at this point as he regained their narrow advantage in the 13^th minute before, almost inevitably, Kildare got back on terms through an Aaron Masterson score.

The trading of points continued through Niall Scully and Neil Flynn before Dublin finally began to seize control of matters with a Dean Rock free edging them back in front by the 18^th minute.

This score pre-empted five further scores on the bounce with Bugler, Killian O’Gara, Rock and Basquel (2), all on target before their opponents finally replied through a Flynn free in the 27^th minute.

Two further points followed for Kildare but Dublin finished the half on a positive note through a Rock free and O’Callaghan to push 0-13 to 0-8 clear by the turnaround. 

Kildare resumed on the front foot through a brace of Ben McCormack points as they managed to unsettle the Dublin restarts but Bugler and Rock scores allowed their side to reassert themselves as the contest evolved.

Basquel added another brace in quick succession to take the contest further away from Kildare and while a Flynn free briefly closed the gap to five points in the 49^th minute, Dublin kicked on the score the next five points.

Two excellent points from Mannion were sandwiched by scores by Brian Fenton, Bugler and Tom Lahiff and despite Kildare finishing the scoring through a Kevin Feely mark in added time, the competitive nature of the encounter had long ended.

SCORERS - Dublin - C Basquel 0-5, D Rock (3f), C O‘Callaghan 0-4 each, S Bugler 0-3, P Mannion 0-2, N Scully, K O’Gara, B Fenton, T Lahiff 0-1 each. Kildare - N Flynn 0-5 (2f, 1 ‘45’), B McCormack 0-3, D Kirwan, P Woodgate (f), K O’Callaghan, A Masterson, K Feely (m) 0-1 each.

Dublin: S Cluxton; S McMahon, M Fitzsimons, D Newcombe; B Howard, J Small, L Gannon; B Fenton, J McCarthy; N Scully, C O’Callaghan, S Bugler; K O’Gara, C Basquel, D Rock. Subs: P Mannion for O’Gara (half-time), L O’Dell for Rock (47), C Murphy for Small & T Lahiff for O’Callaghan (59), G McEneaney for McMahon (71).

Kildare: M Donnellan; E Doyle, S Ryan, M O’Grady; D Hyland, K Flynn, J Sargent; K O’Callaghan, A Masterson; P McDermott, B McCormack, A Beirne; P Woodgate, D Kirwan, N Flynn. Subs: R Houlihan for Doyle & T Archbold for Sargent (half-time), D Flynn for Woodgate (43), K Feely for Masterson (47), P Cribbin for McCormack (54).

Referee: Sean Hurson (Tyrone).