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Eoin Doyle and Nigel Dunne clash in a game that was never short of incident. Tommy Dickson/INPHO
White Heat

Kildare bounce back to kick-start their championship with Offaly win

Neil Flynn led the way with five points for Cian O’Neill’s men.

Kildare 1-22

Offaly 2-14

KILDARE KEPT OFFALY scoreless for the last 20 minutes of action, including eight minutes of injury time, and scored five points in that period to pull away from their rivals.

Adam Tyrrell, Niall Kelly and Neil Flynn all scored three points as they led by five at the break, Tommy Moolick having goaled in the 15th minute.

The hosts were good value for the lead at that stage though Offaly had shown plenty themselves.

In particular, Johnny Moloney was proving a real handful, scoring two points from play and being fouled for two of Nigel Dunne’s five pointed frees.

The second half was played in a welter of excitement with the attendance fully engaged and players getting involved all over the place.

There were plenty of cards dished out and Offaly drew close with goals from Nigel Dunne and Peter Cunningham’s emphatically-finished penalty.

In truth, they were rare attacking forays for Offaly though as Moolick, Feely and Emmet Bolton got on a mountain of ball.

As tempers frayed late on, Offaly lost Eoin Carroll to a second yellow card in the 67th minute but Kildare held their nerve with a couple of pointed frees by Eoghan O’Flaherty as well as tremendous scores by Kelly, David Hyland and Alan Smith saw them home.

Scorers for Kildare: N Flynn 0-5 (0-2f); N Kelly, A Tyrrell (0-2f) 0-4 each; T Moolick 1-1; E O’Flaherty (0-2f), F Conway 0-2 each; C McNally, K Feely, A Smith, D Hyland 0-1 each.

Scorers for Offaly: N Dunne 1-7 (0-7f); P Cunningham 1-1 (1-0 pen); J Moloney, N Darby (0-1f) 0-2 each; N McNamee, G Guilfoyle 0-1 each.

Kildare

1. Mark Donnellan

2. Peter Kelly
3. David Hyland
4. Ollie Lyons

5. Johnny Byrne
6. Eoin Doyle
7. Emmet Bolton

8. Tommy Moolick
18. Kevin Feely

10. Adam Tyrrell
11. Morgan O’Flaherty
9. Fergal Conway

13. Cathal McNally
14. Niall Kelly
15. Neil Flynn

Subs:

20. Ciarán Fitzpatrick for P Kelly (33)
12. Eoghan O’Flaherty for Tyrrell (48)
17. Cian O’Donoghue for Lyons (inj, 51)
19. Fionn Dowling for Doyle (BC, 52)
24. Alan Smith for Flynn (54)
26. Keith Cribbin for McNally (BC, 70+2)

Offaly

1. Alan Mulhall

2. Brian Darby
3. Eoin Rigney
4. Seán Pender

5. Niall Darby
6. Peter Cunningham
17. Cian Donohue

8. Eoin Carroll
9. Niall Smith

12. Michael Brazil
14. Nigel Dunne
13. Graham Guilfoyle

15. Anton Sullivan
11. Niall McNamee
10. Johnny Moloney

Subs:

21. Conor McNamee for Guilfoyle (ht)
23. Bernard Allen for Brazil (65)
21. Jason Gethins for Donohue (67)
28. James Lalor for Cunningham (70+4)

Referee: Padraig Hughes (Armagh)

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