Senior footballers hit the turbo to burn off Kildare

DUBLIN 2-17 KILDARE 2-10

A superb opening to the second half saw Dublin turn a two-point deficit into a strong match-winning position in Saturday night's NFL1 clash with Leinster rivals Kildare at Croke Park.

A first half goal from Luke Flynn helped Kildare to a 1-6 to 0-7 as Dublin looked a little off the pace in the early stages but the second half was a different tale. Kildare could have lead by more but squandered a good few chances.

However, with 14 minutes of the restart Dublin had tallied 2-5 without reply as they hit the turbo button to burn off the Lilywhite challenge.

In the first half Dublin were a bit ponderous as Kildare got plenty of bodies back to clog up the scoring zone, however, in the second period Dublin played the game at a higher tempo and their use of possession was more accurate.

Dublin, in fact, could have scored more with Niall Scully and Bernard Brogan missing goal chances, and Dean Rock skewing wide a follow-up chance after Bernard's goal attempt was saved by keeper Mark Donnellan.

The experienced St Oliver Plunkett's/Eoghan Ruadh forward more than made amends with some clever assists as Dublin put together some sparkling moves.

The first of these Brogan flicked the ball into the path of the in-rushing Dean Rock who angled his shot low to the far corner of the net.

From the next kickout Dublin went on the attack again and Brogan released the marauding Brian Fenton who made no mistake.

Dublin's confidence was high now and several players got in on the scoring act with ColmBasquel (0-3) and Brian Howard (0-2) contributing well to Dublin's display as the Dubs ran out easy winners despite Daniel Flynn's brilliantly taken late goal.

"We are up and running and we will take that result," said Dublin manager Jim Gavin.

"We are back training two weeks now. We were opened up a little bit and not as controlled as we would like to be.

"Our hand passing, kick passing and the fundamentals of our game weren’t what they should have been, I wouldn’t use the two weeks as an excuse, we just need to go after that now.

"We took some great shots and we were very clinical but how we closed out the game wouldn’t be to our standards that’s a credit to Kildare."

The Dubs face Tyrone in Healy Park, Omagh next Saturday night (7.0) in their next NFL1 game.

"It’s a great game to get at this point of the season. People there are really passionate about their Gaelic games and we always get a warm welcome there and I’m sure we will get a warm welcome on the pitch as well," added Jim.

"Tyrone were strong in the McKenna Cup. They will have a different approach and different proposition. They are a good test to get this time of year and we are looking forward to it."

SCORERS - Dublin: B Fenton 1-3, D Rock 1-2 (0-2f), C Basquel 0-3, C Kilkenny, N Scully, B Howard 0-2 each, B Brogan, J Small, KMcManamon 0-1 each. Kildare: D Flynn 1-2, L Flynn 1-0, E Callaghan 0-3 (0-3f), K Feely 0-2 (0-2f), N Flynn (0-1f), P Cribbin, M Donnellan (0-1f) 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; M Fitzsimons, D Byrne, D Daly; J Cooper, J McCarthy, J Small; B Fenton, MD Macauley; N Scully, C Kilkenny, B Howard; C Basquel, D Rock, B Brogan. Subs: K McManamon for Macauley (46), E Lowndes for Cooper (51), P Mannion for Rock (55), P McMahon for Fitzsimons (55), C O'Shea for Daly (59), P Andrews for Brogan (60).

KILDARE: M Donnellan; D Hyland, M O'Grady, P Kelly; J Byrne, E Doyle, C O'Donoghue; K Feely, L Flynn; F Conway, C Healy, P Cribbin; N Flynn, D Flynn, C McNally. Subs: D Slattery for N Flynn (inj, 5), N Kelly for Healy (bc, 20), T Moolick for Conway (51), B McCormack for L Flynn (56), E Callaghan for Feely (61), M Hyland for P Kelly (61).

REF: C Lane (Cork).

ATT: 26,027.