Deadly Doyle and toil foils Westmeath

Kildare 0-14 Westmeath 0-11

Dublin were the last team to successfully defend their title in the east a decade ago, but it has proven a trick beyond everyone else ever since.

It didn't have to be this way for Páidí Ó Sé's men though. Facing a team with only 14 men for 50 minutes, Westmeath never took advantage of their numerical superiority, their efforts being summed up when Alan Mangan kicked a shocker of a penalty straight at Enda Murphy.

They had their chances, but nevertheless this was a game they deserved to lose. Kildare arrived with abuse still ringing in their ears after their great escape against Wicklow and they fed on a sense of outrage all afternoon.

These boys were hungry. Plain and simple. Unbelievably for a team with athletes like Rory O'Connell and David O'Shaughnessy in their midst, Westmeath were slaughtered in midfield.

Killian Brennan and Michael Foley did their bit, but it was Kildare's half backs and half forwards who did most of the damage. They lurked around the dropping ball like vultures. The chief recipient of their midfield largesse was John Doyle, their captain and talisman and, on this day, their man of the match. Six points Doyle finished with, all bar-one from play.

With a similar performance in the bag against Wicklow, the Allenwood corner-forward is putting together a CV the All-Star selectors might find hard to ignore.

Doyle wasn't the only attacker displaying his full range of tricks though. At the far end Dessie Dolan gave another superb display, but the difference between the two was the support they received or in Dolan's case, didn't.

Doyle was ably supported by his efficient lieutenants, most notably Tadhg Fennin. Dolan was more of a lone ranger, a fact underlined by the sight of Dennis Glennon trudging off with five minutes still to be played.

Last year, Glennon was terrorising defenders. Yesterday he looked like man drowning in a sea of mediocrity. He wasn't alone among his peers either, and quite a few Westmeath players won't have slept easily last night.

The only time the champions ever resembled the 2004 model was in the opening five minutes when they built a 0-4 to no score lead. For a second, it was tempting to wonder what all the fuss over a bad league campaign and the haemorrhaging of players throughout the season was about.

By the same token, suspicions about Kildare's shortcomings, fomented in the win over Wicklow, seemed to be confirmed. Wrong again. Their retort was swift and to the point, with three points ensuring they would never let Westmeath out of their sights.

The game was heating up, in more ways than one, and with 14 minutes gone Sweeney became the first of eight men to have the yellow waved in their direction.

Six minutes later, yellow morphed into red for Sweeney when he seemed to accidentally catch John Keane in the face. Yet, if any team is comfortable playing with 14 players, it's Kildare. If the numbers decreased, the temperature did not, as referee Michael Daly scrambled about the field extinguishing bush fires springing up with increasing regularity.

Five more cards ensued, with Glen Ryan one of the main culprits, running around like a bear with a sore head. In the midst of it all, Mangan had scuffed his penalty and one or two players even managed to remember that there was a ball present and kick some points to leave it 0-7 to 0-6 in Westmeath's favour at the break.

On the restart, delayed by Westmeath's late re-arrival, it was all Kildare but, having gone three points up, they then found themselves clawed back by efforts from Dolan and Paddy Mulvihill.

Both sides squandered a couple of chances to regain the lead after that and with every wide the sense grew that the next score was paramount.

It was hardly a coincidence that it came from the boot of Doyle, and two more followed from the skipper himself and Foley.

With three minutes of normal time to play and leading 0-12 to 0-9, Westmeath were hanging onto a precipice. They inevitably rallied for a last push but Kildare held them off with ease. The champions were out. Again.

KILDARE: E Murphy; A Rainbow, P Mullarkey, J Lonergan; M Wright, R Ryan, K Ennis; K Brennan, M Foley (0-1); E Callaghan, D Earley (0-1), R Sweeney (0-1); T Fennin (0-4, 3f), R Glavin, J Doyle (0-6, 1f). Subs: D McCormack (0-1) for Glavin 41, S McKenzie-Smith for Callaghan 58, D Duffy for Davitt 62, D Hendy for Mullarkey 63, W Heffernan for Foley 69.

WESTMEATH: G Connaughton; J Davitt, D Healy, J Keane; M Ennis, D Heavin, D Kilmartin; R O'Connell, D O'Shaughnessy; A Mangan (0-1), F Wilson (0-1f), P Mulvihill (0-1); David Glennon, Dennis Glennon, D Dolan (0-7, 3f). Subs: J McAteer for Kilmartin 31, J Fallon for Wilson 47, G Dolan for David Glennon 59, P Conway (0-1) for Dennis Glennon 67.

Referee: M Daly (Mayo).