Kildare crush Cavan as subplot ends

Kildare 3-20 Cavan 1-9:LONG BEFORE the engaging subplot took over, there was some championship football on show. Not that this felt like championship fare. It began with the expected Cavan surge but once that petered out, far too quickly, Kildare stretched further and further away, leaving the crowd of 14,558 to shuffle silently out the gate and home.

Home being Cavan, although some of them have addresses in Kildare. Everyone stayed for the last 10 minutes, of course. We’ll get to Seánie Johnston’s arrival.

Kildare didn’t atone for their collapse in the Leinster semi-final against Meath simply because Cavan were so poor. They just took what was rightfully theirs; safe passage into this morning’s third-round draw.

Kieran McGeeney can have few complaints about his players (the media is another matter). The originally selected Kildare half-forward line registered a mountain of scores – Eoghan O’Flaherty’s 0-8 going alongside Mikey Conway’s 1-4 and Alan Smith’s 1-5 from play.

Johnny Doyle’s work in the back-field was markedly improved, while Tomás O’Connor engineered 1-5 for team-mates, gathering all sorts of ball dropped, slid or jabbed towards him. James Kavanagh also deserves praise for his work as chief puppeteer.

The difference between the teams can best be identified between the 18th and 22nd minutes. Kildare had eased into a 0-6 to 0-3 when two kickable Cavan points fell into Shane Connolly’s hands. Off they went up field.

Smith found an overlapping Emmet Bolton, who was allowed cover far too much ground. Bolton put it into O’Connor, who lifted his head instead of shooting into traffic. Mikey Conway was there to raise the green flag.

Not beaten yet, back came Cavan. Eventually it fell to the nimble Niall McDermott. The corner forward danced past two defenders but his attempt at one more solo before unleashing a shot failed. His calf disappeared as Morgan O’Flaherty gave up a free and took a yellow card, one stride away from a penalty.

There were 12 yellow cards and 41 frees handed out as Marty Duffy was in a pernickety mood. Some games don’t need the referee to stamp his authority on proceedings. It’s a wonder no one saw red, especially all six cautioned defenders in the full-back lines.

The removal of doubt came far too early. In the 25th minute Kavanagh rolled a kick pass to Bolton whose strike made it 2-7 to 0-4. It no longer mattered that Eugene Keating brought his championship total to 2-7 from three outings or that the Cavan players clearly decided to make a battle of the last 35 minutes playing summer football.

Still, Keating’s well-taken goal soon after the break was followed by McDermott and Jack Brady points but their momentum stalled when McDermott posted a wide, one of 15 in total, while Kildare had zero in the opening half.

McGeeney’s team responded to the mini Cavan revival with a string of O’Flaherty frees. Cavan got into view of another goal but Niall Smith blasted wide. Kildare went at them again with Doyle and Dermot Early landing points before the crowd found its voice.

All reason left Breffni Park as Seánie Johnston warmed up. His arrival after 60 minutes was greeted by a chorus of booing from the natives and cheering from the visiting supporters. Johnston went inside onto Killian Clarke. Before long his former DCU (and Cavan) team-mate Ronan Flanagan arrived on him.

Everyone waited for the moment to come. So much so that Smith’s clever follow up of Kavanagh’s shot for Kildare’s third goal was barely noticed.

When Johnston fouled Fergal Flanagan coming out of defence Ronan Flanagan grabbed him by the neck. The whole place was simmering. When Flanagan got out in front of Johnston on the next ball the place went a little crazy. It went ballistic when the ball travelled all the way up field for Gearóid McKiernan to point.

The scoreboard read 3-19 to 1-9.

There was more. Johnston finally got the ball. McDermott was first in to foul him. Despite a word from Doyle, Johnston stepped up to slot his first point for Kildare. He didn’t celebrate. The full-time whistle sounded and, mercifully, nobody cared anymore.

CAVAN:1 J Reilly; 25 J McLoughlin, 2 K Clare, 6 D Reilly; 9 T Corr, 4 D Tighe, 12 R Flanagan; 3 P O'Reilly, 11 G McKiernan (0-2); 10 N Smith, 19 K Meehan, 8 D Givney; 13 N McDermott (0-3, all frees), 14 E Keating (1-1), 15 J Brady (0-3, all frees). Subs: 20 J Hayes for Reilly (33 mins), 5 M McKeever for Tighe, 21 R Maloney-Derham for Givney (both h-t), 22 D McKiernan for Corr (42 mins), 7 F Flanagan for McLoughlin (63 mins).

KILDARE: 1 S Connolly; 7 H McGrillen, 4 P Kelly, 2 A MacLochlainn; 5 E Bolton (1-0), 6 M O'Flaherty, 23 E Doyle; 9 R Kelly, 3 M Foley; 13 J Doyle (0-1), 11 M Conway (1-4, two frees), 10 E O'Flaherty (0-8, seven frees); 15 J Kavanagh, 14 T O'Connor, 12 A Smith (1-5). Subs: 17 O Lyons for MacLochlainn (42 mins), 24 D Earley (0-1) for Foley (52 mins), 20 R Sweeney for Conway (56 mins), 21 S Johnston (0-1, free) for O'Flaherty, P Fogarty for O'Connor (both 60 mins).

Referee: Marty Duffy (Sligo).