Kildare open league account

Kildare 4-10 Westmeath 0-11

A brace of goals in either half ensured Kildare claimed their first win in this year's Allianz NHL Division 2 campaign, following a comfortable 4-10 to 0-11 triumph over Westmeath at Mullingar this afternoon.

Entering the game off the back of a heavy 10-point defeat to Laois in mid week, Andy Comerford's charges gave an excellent display right from the off.

Playing against a stiff wind in the first half, Kildare led by 0-5 to 0-3 early on with John Houlihan, David Harney and Billy White on target.

Joe Clarke, Brendan Murtagh and Andrew Mitchell kept Westmeath in touch, but the visitors were goal-hungry before the interval.

Richie Hoban's 33rd-minute penalty may have rebounded off the crossbar, but David Carter was on hand to slot the ball to the net.

Kildare continued to show great momentum with a David Harney goal pushing the Lilywhites into a 2-5 to 0-7 interval lead.

Westmeath tried hard on the restart to get back into contention through players such as Murtagh and Clarke.

But Kildare comfortably closed out the game with second half goals from Carter and Houlihan.