Dublin bounce back from opening round draw to secure a comfortable 9 score win over Kildare at Nowlan Park
Kildare 0-13 Dublin 0-22
UPMC Nowlan Park, Kilkenny
After a disappointing draw against Roscommon in last week’s All Ireland Senior Football opener, Dessie Farrell’s Dublin Football panel came away from Nowlan Park this evening with a comfortable 0-22 to 0-13 victory over Kildare to strengthen their position in Group 3 of the All Ireland Series. And it takes some pressure off before facing Sligo in theor final round game.
Colm Basquel stood out for the Dubs today with a return of 0-05. And Dublin certainly performed better today than their last two encounters against Kildare this year.
Despite Kildare hitting two points on the bounce at the beginning of the second half, they found themselves trailing by 0-06 as the game clock hit the 47th minute. And they failed to score a point from play until additional time at the end of the game.
Dublin held their own despite being without players like Ciaran Kilenny and Paul Mannion. And they held a confident 0-13 to 0-08 lead at the break. Con O’Callaghan returned to form as the sides battled back and forth in the opening quarter. Dublin then hit 0-06 unanswered over a 6 minute period with Kildare struggling to get out of their own half. Basquel caused their defence some serious problems, registering the last 2 of the 6 score salvo.
While Kildare struck back with three of their own, it was Dublin finishing the half stronger thanks to a Dean Rock converted free and a fourth score from the boot of Con O’Callaghan.
Scorers for Dublin:
Colm Basquel 0-05
C O’Callaghan 0-04
Dean Rock 0-04 (2f)
Sean Bugler 0-03
Paul Mannion 0-02
Niall Scully 0-01
Killian O’Gara 0-01
Brian Fenton 0-01
Tom Lahiff 0-01
Scorers for Kildare:
Neil Flynn 0-05 (2f, 1 ’45)
Ben McCormack 0-03
Darragh Kirwan 0-01
Paddy Woodgate 0-01 (1f)
Aaron Masterson 0-01
Kevin O’Callaghan 0-01
Kevin Feely 0-01 (1 mark)
Dublin:
Stephen Cluxton
Daire Newcombe
Michael Fitzsimons
Sean McMahon
Brian Howard
John Small
Lee Gannon
Brian Fenton
James McCarthy
Niall Scully
Sean Bugler
Colm Basquel
Dean Rock
Con O’Callaghan
Killian O’Gara
Dublin Substitutes:
Paul Mannion for O’Gara (HT)
Lorcan O’Dell for Rock (48)
Tom Lahiff for O’Callaghan (59)
Cian Murphy for Small (59)
Greg McEneaney for MacMahon (71)
Kildare:
Mark Donnellan
Mick O’Grady
Shea Ryan
Eoin Doyle
David Hyland
Kevin Flynn
Jack Sargent
Kevin O’Callaghan
Aaron Masterson
Paddy McDermott
Ben McCormack
Alex Beirne
Neil Flynn
Darragh Kirwan
Paddy Woodgate
Kildare Substitutes:
Ryan Houlihan for Doyle (HT)
Tony Archbold for Sargent (HT)
Kevin Feely for Masterson (48)
Paul Cribbin for McCormack (54)
