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Down take advantage

Kildare 0-8 Down 1-16: IT’S NOT too often a manager wishes his players hit a few more wides and James McCartan may have his …

Mon Feb 08 2010 - 00:00

Kildare 0-8 Down 1-16:IT'S NOT too often a manager wishes his players hit a few more wides and James McCartan may have his tongue ever so slightly in his cheek when voicing that thought.

But so impressive were Down in completely dismantling 13-man Kildare at St Conleth’s Park yesterday, that the manager was aware of the potential for expectations to go into overdrive.

“The gloss that was put on it in the end, sometimes as a manager you prefer that those balls went wide and you’d have won by four, three, two or one because some people start hyping it up,” he said.

Gary White and Daryl Flynn were dismissed in the 51st and 61st minutes having picked up two yellow cards each but Down were already 1-12 to 0-7 in front by the time White was saw red.

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“We were very slow in the half-back line and midfield again,” said McGeeney. They were dropping a man (James Colgan) deep and we still kept kicking the ball to him. That was just one of a lot of different basic errors. Fist passing, throwing the ball backwards. A whole lot of different things. It was very poor.”

Kildare started reasonably well, with Rob Kelly and Karl Ennis kicking five points from play between them.

With Down exerting clear control of the middle sector though, they gradually took over. Paul McComiskey crashed home a goal in the 27th minute.

The visitors were 1-7 to 0-6 ahead at the break and continued on their merry way after the resumption. It was one-way traffic as Kildare represented absolutely no attacking threat and couldn’t cope with Down at the other end.

KILDARE: S McCormack; A MacLochlainn, M Foley, E Bolton; G White (0-1), B Flanagan, A Rainbow; D Flynn, D Earley; D Whyte, P O'Neill (0-1), R Kelly (0-3); K Ennis (0-2), R Sweeney, J Kavanagh (0-1). Subs: H McGrillen for Foley (16 mins), K Donnelly for Sweeney (49 mins), D Lyons for Rainbow (49 mins), K Cribbin for Cavanaugh (59 mins), R Walsh for Cribbin inj (69 mins).

DOWN: B McVeigh; D McCartan, B McArdle, D Rafferty; K McKernan, J Colgan, C Garvey (0-1); A Rodgers (0-3), K King; C Maginn, M Clarke (0-3, frees), D Hughes (0-1); P McComiskey (1-4, 0-2 frees), J Clarke (0-2), B Coulter. Subs: C Laverty (0-1)for Maginn (49 mins), S Kearney (0-1)for Hughes (58 mins), M Poland for Coulter (64 mins), P Fitzpatrick for King (65 mins), P Greenan for Rodgers (67 mins).

Referee: D Fahy(Longford)