LILIES EASE PAST TAME LAOIS
KILDARE manager Cian O’Neill says their 14-point victory over Laois will stand to them as they prepare to take down Meath in the Leinster semifinals next time out.
Kildare were far too good for their near neighbours at O’Connor Park in Tullamore yesterday as they cruised to a 1-21 to 1-7 victory without over-exerting themselves.
Amazingly Laois were a goal up inside the opening minute when dangerman Donie Kingston found the net, but after that Kildare began to take control around the middle third.
They led 0-12 to 1-2 at half-time and once Dan Flynn slotted their goal in the 48th minute there was no coming back for Laois.
They now head for the qualifiers but Kildare will return to Tullamore for their Leinster final four clash with Meath on Saturday week.
Meath also had a resounding victory in their quarter-final — 027 to 3-9 against Louth — but O’Neill says Kildare won’t pay too much attention to the big score-lines.
‘All you can focus on is your own game and how you try to play the game,’ said O’Neill.
‘We’ll focus on ourselves, there’s only 13 days, there’s a very limited amount you can do in 13 days so most of our work is going to be on how we’re going to play and how we’re going to approach the game.
‘A lot of sore bodies, getting 70 minutes of Championship football under your belt is a huge hurdle for the lads to overcome, even in terms of their own self-belief.
‘You could see some lads were visibly tired at the end because of the work they put in, that’ll stand to them.’
Laois had already scored a huge 11-point win over Longford in the opening round and it looked as though they were right on form when Donie Kingston found the net in the first minute.
Kildare captain Eoin Doyle chose to play with the breeze in the first-half but it looked to have back-fired when Evan O’Carroll won the ball off Ollie Lyons and gave the assist, for Kingston to rocket his shot low past Mark Donnellan.
But Kildare kept their composure and once Kevin Feely kicked a point from a free, their first score in the third minute, they gained confidence.
They led for the first time when Cathal McNally scored his second point in the seventh minute and Laois were already struggling.
But they clung on until Lyons scored in the 24th minute. That gave Kildare the lead for the third time and they followed that up with six more points before halftime to take a 0-12 to 1-2 lead into the break.
Kildare began well in the second-half and David Slattery scored to become the fifth Kildare forward to register a point.
Laois were still hanging on with some hope but Flynn’s goal in the 48th minute, when Slattery worked the opening, and the Johnstownbridge clubman sidestepped Graham Brody to finish into the roof of the net, sealed the win.
‘We didn’t play particularly well in the first-half. We played well in the second quarter but there was a lot of key things to our game,’ said O’Neill.
‘We weren’t doing enough, we weren’t pushing up on their kickouts enough. When we did we caused problems. That was a key thing.
‘We wanted to play with more pace. Anytime we struggled this year was because we didn’t play with pace and drive. That was an easy thing as well. Individually some guys weren’t playing as well as they could and they put their hand up, and by jaysus did they play in the second-half there.
‘It wasn’t as if it was a clinical performance in the first-half, we had plenty to talk about at half-time.’