Kildare senior football team manager Brian Flanagan. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
Allianz Football League Division Three
Kildare 1-16 (1-1-14) Sligo 0-13 (0-1-11)
Offaly 2-19 (2-0-19) Laois 0-17 (0-2-13)
Clare 2-17 (2-3-11) Leitrim 0-10 (0-0-10)
Fermanagh 2-16 (2-1-14) Antrim 3-12 (3-0-12)
Leinster rivals Kildare and Offaly will be the happiest of the eight counties going into the ‘hurling only’ weekend as they each made it two wins from two with road trip victories.
The wins came in very different fashions, however, as Kildare were pushed to the wire by Sligo, while Offaly were utterly dominant at Laois Hire O’Moore Park, and it was only a late run of scores from the home side that took the gloss off the scoreboard from a Faithful County perspective.
There was never a stage when Kildare were in real trouble, but it was a ferociously tight contest at Markievicz Park from start to finish all the same, particularly midway through the second half when Aidan Devaney landed a 45 and Niall Murphy hit a two-point free to reduce the gap to one point.
Just like last week, however, wides were to haunt Sligo and seven errant shots in the second half let Kildare off the hook. The Lilywhites then opened up in the last five minutes, clinching their win through a point from Colm Dalton and 1-1 from Darragh Kirwan, who was their top scorer with 1-5.
In Portlaoise, beleaguered home supporters who watched their hurlers lose out to Offaly by nine points were given no chance to regain any positivity as Offaly exploded out of the blocks with another excellent attacking display in the football battle between the two midlands neighbours.
Keith O’Neill and Dylan Hyland were sharp up front while Jordan Hayes and goalkeeper Paddy Dunican scored excellent first-half goals for the side managed by Declan Kelly and Mickey Harte.
Laois, who didn’t get the chance to play under the new rules last week, were all at sea in the opening 20 minutes and trailed by 1-10 to 0-2 at that stage.
Pa Kirwan got a couple of nice points and Damon Larkin netted for the home side but they were still a distant second best, and trailed by 2-18 to 1-9 before they finished strong with eight of the last nine, including two Mark Barry two-pointers.
In Ennis it was just 0-1 each after 12 minutes and it looked as if there might be a rare low-scoring game in the offing, but the Banner County took off from there and had five different forwards on the scoresheet by half-time, when they led by 0-13 to 0-4.
Barry McNulty, Keith Beirne and Jack Flynn were on the mark early in the second half as Leitrim started to rally, but Ikem Ugwueru effectively settled the tie with a barnstorming run and finish, and that was followed by Alan Sweeney posting a second goal for Peter Keane’s troops.
The most dramatic action of the day in Division Three of the Allianz League took place in Ederney, where Rúairí McCann palmed in a stoppage time goal for Antrim, but that wasn’t quite enough for them to salvage something against Fermanagh.
Antrim took an early 0-3 to 0-0 lead, but failed to take a couple of goal chances, and that was brought into focus when Conor Love produced a slick low finish to level the tie in the 13th minute.
Fionn Nagle and Garvan Jones traded goals as the contest began to gather real momentum, and the green flag flew for a fourth time when Dominic McEnhill pounced on a defensive error to put the visitors two points up at half-time.
The crucial spell of the game was between the 40th and the 50th minute, when Fionan O’Brien, Conor Love, Declan McCusker, Daragh McGurn and Jones all pointed in succession, and that cushion was to prove crucial.
