Switches lift Lilywhites

ANOTHER second-half blitz, another qualifier victory for Kildare. The one team that learns the most from losing seemed to brush away all their cares about Dublin and last-gasp frees with a scintillating performance in Portlaoise.

Here it was the effectiveness of full-forward Tomás O’Connor that put paid to Justin McNulty’s hopes ofgetting the bragging rights against his Mullaghbawn pal Kieran McGeeney.

The Clane man, who was dropped for the Dublin game, was crucial in the creation of John Doyle’s successful penalty and then found the net after recovering from a block to convert the rebound.

He laid off a number of points in the second half as well, leading supporters to believe Kildare’s long balls into the Dublin full-back line might have been better served had he been there.

“Believe it or not, that wasn’t the tactic they were told to do in the first half against Dublin but that’s how it goes,” revealed McGeeney.

“It’s always hard to base opinions on what you see for the 70 minutes. Against Meath, everybody was saying he shouldn’t be on because he wasn’t scoring, even though he wasn’t winning a ball. Then after today... Tom knew he wasn’t producing what we wanted but he turned around and that’s what you expect from good players.

“James Kavanagh got dropped but he came on and he was so hungry for the ball he nearly ate it up when he came on.

“Fionn (Dowling) showed age doesn’t have any bearing on whether you can play championship football.

“His courage going for some of those balls was exceptional.”

Teenager Dowling and O’Connor were two of the three changes to the full-forward line from the team that were beaten by Dublin — Robert Kelly being the other. McGeeney felt criticism of the switches in the build-up to the game were unfounded and ultimately proven wrong by their performances.

“Three fellas came in and people were shocked all week about it but they all stood up. Even Rob was exceptional. I asked him to give me all he could and he did.

“Everybody has different perspectives. I read after the Dublin game that Ollie Lyons was poor and I couldn’t understand any of that because I’d think Bernard Brogan is one of the best corner-forwards around at the minute and he held him to a point from play. You’d be reading this stuff and going, ‘Is this the same game that I was at?’ We look at things six days a week and we base decisions on that. Sometimes they don’t work, sometimes they do but we base them on six days. Everybody else makes decisions on 70 minutes after they’ve seen a game.”

Kildare’s decision-making was a lot better in the second half on Saturday, scoring 1-13 as opposed to the 2-3 they scored before the break.

Admittedly, Laois had lost heart for battle in the final 10 minutes but it was also a reflection on just how powerful Kildare had been around the centre, where they had been slightly inferior in the first half.

Indeed, they were just three points ahead at half time (2-3 to 0-6) and it was the 26th minute before they registered their first point, when Pádraig O’Neill struck high and true.

Laois clearly didn’t brace themselves for the traditional Kildare second-half tour de force as the margin was widened to six in the 45th minute when Padraig Clancy’s fisted score was all they could muster against points from Ollie Lyons, Hugh Lynch, a John Doyle free and Dowling — after referee David Coldrick had wisely played advantage.

Laois pulled it back to four with Donie Kingston pointing a free and Brendan Quigley splitting the posts but they were largely out of ideas.

Not for the first time this season, Colm Begley and MJ Tierney were largely anonymous, the latter being replaced in the 53rd minute. Disillusioned Tierney may have been but it must have been worse for McNulty watching as his side never threatened anything close to a comeback.

Niall Donoher’s 55th-minute score was the home team’s last of the game as Kildare turned the screw, kicking some delightful points as well as punishing the Laois backs’ indiscipline.

Substitute Kavanagh’s 66th-minute goal was the coup de grace but the affair was dead well before that.

Scorers for Laois: D Kingston 0-3 (2f); MJ Tierney 0-2 (2f); R Munnelly, P Clancy, B Quigley 0-1 each.

Scorers for Kildare: J Doyle 1-4 (1-0 pen 0-4f); J Kavanagh 1-1; T O’Connor 1-0; H Lynch 0-3 (1f); E O’Flaherty (1 45), P O’Neill 0-2 each; E Callaghan, O Lyons, F Dowling, M Scanlon 0-1 each.

Subs for Laois: C Boyle for Healy (5); K Lillis for Strong (ht); D Carroll for Tierney (53); G Kavanagh for Clancy (55); B Brennan for Lillis (62).

Subs for Kildare: J Kavanagh for Kelly (45); T O’Neill for Lyons (60); M Conway for Dowling (64); M Scanlon for M O’Flaherty, B Flanagan for White (both 69).

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath).