All white on the night

IT WAS a good night at the office for Kildare at Dr Cullen Park as they cruised to the Leinster SFC semi-final with a comfortable dismissal of last year’s All-Ireland semi-finalists Wexford on Saturday.

Kieran McGeeney’s side never really looked in danger of losing, once Alan Smith slotted to the corner of the net in the 10th minute after some good work by blood sub Gary White and the hugely industrious Ronan Sweeney.

All their scores came from play as they continued to build on the promise of a league that saw them averaging more than 16 points a game. With John Doyle limited to one score, it’s clear Kildare is no longer a one-man attacking band.

Doyle was well marshalled by rookie defender Graeme Molloy, whose performance, along with that of the marvellous Ciarán Lyng at the other end of the field, were the few positives for Wexford manager Jason Ryan.

Though Doyle struggled to impose himself in customary fashion, he did have a hand in a couple of other scores including James Kavanagh’s game-sealing 52nd minute goal.

Kavanagh, a former Colleges’ star with St Jarlath’s of Tuam, finished with 1-3 from play. He was prominent in most of what was good about the Lilies’ attack and also did his bit for the defensive cause, gathering two balls around his own full-back line in the closing minutes.

Smith continues to build on a hugely impressive debut season last year and he matched the Ballymore man’s tally. His pace was too much even for the acknowledged man-marking abilities of Brian Malone. With Dermot Earley thundering into proceedings in the second half, and Hugh McGrillen, Mick Foley, Brian Flanagan and Emmet Bolton in complete control in defence, Kildare were able to employ a delightful brand of attacking football that Wexford had no answer for.

With Sweeney and O’Neill dropping deep, there was plenty of space in the front third, and the standard of kick-passing, either diagonal or up the wings ensured that quality forwards would prosper.

And yet McGeeney wasn’t entirely happy. He reasoned: “I thought maybe in the second half there we had a couple of good chances that could have buried the game. It would probably have been unfair to them (Wexford) but when you’re given those chances you have to take them and we didn’t, which is a bit worrying.”

A more significant area of concern was the tally of frees of 27-8 in Wexford’s favour. Kildare have long protested that they are being singled out unfairly by referees and fear that this may well prove their downfall in closer games.

Whereas Wexford scored six points from frees, Kildare only had one opportunity, which Doyle pulled wide in the first half. They were awarded just three frees in the second half.

McGeeney was not impressed with Meath referee Cormac Reilly.

“I just can’t be objective I suppose on some decisions. There’s no way… we work extremely hard on our tackling. I would sit with any referee to watch that video to call those frees. I definitely would. Maybe we’re doing something wrong in our tackling but you’d have to ask questions.”

He returned to the theme when Earley’s magnificent second half was referred to.

“(He did it) under severe testing; he has a better temperament than I have,” he said with a wry smile.

“It’s okay to laugh now but when things are tight, things don’t go your way and teams get away with that sort of stuff, it’s going to cause you serious problems. We’ll be up against bigger midfielders next time and they’re going to try it on Dermot. But he kept his temper and responded well.”

For Ryan’s part, he felt that Kildare played on the edge but within accepted boundaries.

“They’re very strong physically. Tackling technique, everything was just on the edge of the rules and credit to them for that. They worked really hard for each other.

“They worked hard pressurising us. Every free we got they were in our faces, reducing our time on it. Sideline balls the same. They played everything within the rules.”

Scorers for Kildare: J Kavanagh, A Smith 1-3 each; D Earley 0-2; P O’Neill, E Bolton, J Doyle, D Flynn 0-1 each

Scorers for Wexford: C Lyng (1f), S Cullen (5fs) 0-5 each; E Bradley 0-1

Subs for Kildare: G White for O’Neill blood (9-15); M Scanlon for Bolton blood (21-22); D Brennan for Mac Lochlainn (ht), K Donnelly for O’Neill (52), R Kelly for Flynn (55), E O’Flaherty for Doyle (65), A Rainbow for M O’Flaherty (66).

Subs for Wexford: N Murphy for Byrne (29), D Kinsella for Bradley (43), S Roche for A Doyle (45), D Fogarty for B Doyle (48), D Carter for Morris blood (65-) P Colfer for Wallace (66).

Referee: C Reilly (Meath).