Tailteann Cup: Kildare and Fermanagh join Limerick and Wicklow in quarter-finals

Kildare may have secured the home quarter-final that they wanted in the Tailteann Cup on Sunday afternoon, but Sligo’s late rally at Dr Hyde Park highlighted some of the vulnerabilities of the competition favourites.

It finished 4-19 to 1-24 in favour of Brian Flanagan’s side, with Daniel Flynn once again proving his value as he hit 2-3, following up from his tally of 2-4 against Tipperary last time out.

Playing with a strong breeze at their backs, Kildare responded to Cian Lally’s early goal for Sligo by hitting three of their own in the first 15 minutes. Flynn hit the first, toe-poking in a rebound after Aidan Devaney saved his initial effort, then James McGrath powered forward to find the bottom corner of the net and Alex Beirne added a third.

But a pair of two-pointers was a poor return on a day when kickouts from the town end were easily covering 80 metres of ground if needed. A half-time score of 3-11 to 1-7 was not an insurmountable lead, though it looked a lot more convincing when Flynn added his second goal and Kildare led by 15 points with 50 minutes played.

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Eventually Sligo found their shooting boots. Niall Murphy was unmarkable close to goal, shooting 0-10 in total from nine kicks, while Pat Spillane came off the bench to shoot two doubles. The lead briefly went down to two points (4-17 to 1-24) but Lee Deignan and Alan McLoughlin both missed the target from distance, Cian Lally turned down another scorable effort from range, and Mark Dempsey made a crucial fingertip save to prevent Murphy from playing in O’Connor with just the goalkeeper to beat, all in the last five minutes.

In Group 1’s other game, Leitrim won their first game of 2025 against Tipperary in Mullingar, but as the last-ranked third place team, their season still came to an end. In a low-scoring first half, Cian Smith’s two-pointer was the only score in the opening 15 minutes, and goals from Jack Flynn and Tom Prior pushed Leitrim 2-2 to 0-3 ahead at half-time.

Joe McGloin settled the game when his goal put nine points between the sides after 56 minutes. Leitrim didn’t manage another score for 12 minutes, but still saw out the game 3-9 to 0-10.

That result meant Antrim needed to beat London by at least eight points to keep their season alive, and they did that in Newry, running out 1-22 to 0-14 winners. London actually led 0-14 to 0-13 going into the final quarter, but Antrim came with a wet sail as Niall Burns (1-1), Dominic McEnhill (0-6) and Ryan McQuillan (0-4) scored well.

Longford were the only team already eliminated going into Sunday’s games, but despite that they turned out in style against Carlow in Tullamore, shooting seven first-half two-pointers to go with Oran Kenny’s goal. Matthew Carey racked up 0-15 in total, including five of those first-half doubles, in a 1-20 to 1-15 win that pushed Carlow into third spot in the group.

Fermanagh confirmed their passage through to the last eight in Croke Park where they outscored Wexford 0-9 to 0-4 in the final quarter. Seán Nolan’s goal had Wexford in front by five with 30 minutes played, but Fermanagh grew into the game with Conor Love (0-9) leading their attack.

Fermanagh now join Kildare, Limerick and Wicklow in the quarter-finals as group winners. For the preliminary quarter-finals next weekend, Offaly have been drawn against New York, Sligo will host Carlow, Antrim must travel to Wexford and Westmeath will be at home to Laois.