Wasteful Kildare give Kerry chance of final spot

THE All-Ireland champions travel to Pearse Stadium on Sunday still in contention for a league final place after surviving Saturday’s fighting display from Kildare in Tralee.

And for that, they could be thankful more for the visitors’ wastage of precious scoring chances nearing the end more than their own industry during the periods of the first half when they were dominant.

Other than the fact that the newer members of the squad again showed up well — Daniel Bohane and Donncha Walsh for instance in attack — and that he hailed “another big performance” from a defence in which Padraig Reidy was outstanding, Kerry coach Pat O’Shea took a lot of satisfaction from the way his under-strength team gained the points they needed to keep their challenge alive.

“You have to win every way. Obviously it was not a pretty game; it was a tough game, with a lot of hits — heavy hits — and there was a lot of stuff probably off the ball.

“But that’s football. We are in a situation where we are going into our last game and we are still in with a chance to make the final. That is all we wanted,” he said.

Starting with wind advantage, Kerry were two points clear inside three minutes with Reidy involved in both scores, helped by the fact that his nominated opponent, Ronan Sweeney, played well out the field. However, while they had doubled their score by the 15th minute, they were beginning to experience difficulties in getting ball forward more productively.

And, while Kieran Donaghy posed a regular threat, Kildare benefited considerably from the tenacious covering of former IT Tralee player Damien Hendy and the successful deployment of Eamonn O’Callaghan as a sweeper in front of the big full-forward.

Kildare found it even more difficult to get attacks going. Firstly, Darragh Ó Sé was on top at midfield and John Doyle, potentially the opposition’s most potent forward, was making no headway in the right corner against Tom O’Sullivan (with Marc Ó Sé again rock-solid at full-back).

However, the biggest problem for the visitors was that ball hard won in defence and played out smartly and speedily was often given away foolishly. The move of Doyle to centre-forward and the introduction of Tadhg Fennin gave them better attacking options and a Doyle move would have yielded a goal in the 16th minute except his pass to full-forward James Kavanagh went too far forward and wide.

Between then and half-time both sides had further goal chances, first when Tommy Griffin had the misfortune to carry over the line after Bryan Sheehan set him up and later Dermot Earley was whistled back for over-carrying after he had kicked to the net.

By then, a grip at midfield enabled Kildare to be much more competitive, as the half-time score of 0-7 to 0-4 indicated.

Earley, who was to play brilliantly for the last 20 minutes, was again out of luck early in the second half when he pushed a Doyle free just outside the post. That came after a score from Bohane (the result of good work from a more involved Donaghy and Eoin Brosnan) and was followed by a pointed free from Sheehan in the 51st minute — remarkably their last of the game.

Kildare wasted some valuable scoring opportunities — four in a 10-minute period during which Sheehan promised a Kerry goal until he dropped the ball outside the small square.

A Doyle point in the 67th minute brought them to within a single score, giving them plenty of time to chase victory, but they met strong resistance from the Kerry backs, with early second-half substitute Aidan O’Mahony influential in the centre.

John Doyle echoed Kildare’s frustration when he said: “We felt it was a match we could at least get a draw out of. At the end of the day, the result is the same whether it be 10 points or one point.’’

Scorers for Kerry: B Sheehan 0-4 (0-3 frees, 0-1 ‘45); D Walsh 0-3; D O’Sullivan (free) and D Bohane 0-1 each.

Scorers for Kildare: T Fennin 0-3 (0-2 frees); J Doyle 0-2 (0-1 free); B Flanagan, J Kavanagh and D Earley 0-1 each.

KERRY: D Murphy; P Reidy, M Ó Sé, T O’Sullivan; T Ó Sé (capt.), R Ó Flatharta, T Griffin; D Ó Sé, S Scanlon; D Bohane, D Walsh, E Brosnan; D O’Sullivan, K Donaghy, B Sheehan.

Subs: A O’Mahony for Ó Flatharta (46); MF Russell for Walsh (inj, 56); A Maher for Bohane (inj, 58).

KILDARE: T Corley; M O’Flaherty, D Hendy, E Bolton; B Flanagan, A MacLochlainn, A Rainbow; D Flynn, D Earley; E O’Callaghan, M Conway, K Ennis; J Doyle, J Kavanagh, R Sweeney.

Subs: T Fennin for Ennis (23); P Mullarkey for Kavanagh (61).

Referee: B Hickey (Clare).

* A minute’s silence was observed in memory of the late Gary McMahon and the late John Keane (Kerins O’Rahilly’s).