County Derry Post

Derry 1-16
Kildare 0-08

Those Derry supporters who eschewed the St. Patrick’s Day pints in favour of the wind and rain at Celtic Park on Saturday evening were rewarded with a superb display of attacking football by their team.

Chris McCann reports from Celtic Park
sport@derrypost.com

In front through Mark Lynch’s goal after only 90 seconds, Paddy Crozier’s men had the game in the bag by the 24th minute, at which stage they led by 1-10 to 0-1. Kildare staged a rally of sorts in the 20 minutes either side of half-time but once there was a hint Lilywhites might reel in the gap, Derry simply returned to a higher gear and closed the game out.
The cutting edge for Derry was again supplied by Paddy Bradley, the current Allstar kicking scores with a nonchalance that made his massive nine-point haul seem almost unremarkable. If Bradley is the man who fires the bullets then Enda Muldoon is the supplier of ordnance with a peerless display of vision and kick passing.
Some of Derry’s attacking play was scintillating. The move leading to Ciaran Mullan’s 13th minute point was as fluid a passage of football as fans anywhere will see all season.
Credit too must go to the Derry backline which strangled any threat out of the Kildare attack and the visiting forward line looked desperate to hear the final whistle long before the 70 minutes had elapsed.
Kildare were on the rack from the start. With just over a minute on the clock Mark Lynch burst through on goal and although his initial effort was parried by Enda Murphy, the Banagher man was still lurking unmarked when Conleith Gilligan returned the ball to the square and punched the ball to the net.
With the confidence coursing through them after that early lift, the Oak Leafers produced an irresistible spell of football over the next 20 minutes. Four points on the trot from Paddy Bradley (two), Conleith Gilligan and Mullan’s masterpiece saw them lead by seven before James Kavanagh got the visitors off the mark on 13 minutes.
That score was a diamond in a dung heap for the Lilywhites as Derry produced the kind of football one would more readily associate with a hard field on a summer’s day rather than blustery Saturday evening in March. Six unanswered points from Bradley (three), Liam Hinphey, James Conway and Gilligan made it 1-10 to 0-1 after 24 minutes before Kildare finally started to impose themselves on the match.
The introduction of Daryll Flynn at midfield tightened things up for Kildare and Michael Conway (45) and John Doyle two frees made it 1-10 to 0-4 at the break.Kildare managed three more scores on the bounce after the interval as Kavanagh, Morgan O’Flaherty and Doyle all raised the white flag.
But with Barry McGoldrick to the fore and substitute Eoin Bradley adding new impetus to the Derry attack, the hosts regained control of the game and ran out easy winners.
With six points in the bag Derry look almost assured of Division One football next year the challenge now is to go on and claim the place in the knockout stages that has so far eluded them.

Kildare: E Murphy; B Flanagan, K O’Neill, M O’Flaherty (0-1); E Callaghan, A Rainbow, G White; N Browne, D Earley; J Doyle (0-4, frees), M Conway (0-1, 45), T Fenin; J Kavanagh (0-2), P Mullarkey, K Donnelly.

Subs: B Flanagan for Browne (24 mins), M Scanlon for Rainbow (44 mins), A Smith for Fenin (50 mins), K Ennis for Donnelly (57), A Barry for Mullarkey (59 mins).

Derry: B Gillis: K McGuckin, N McCusker, M McIver; L Hinphey (0-1), K McCloy, M McBride; F Doherty, J Conway (0-1); M Lynch (1-0), B McGoldrick (0-1, free), E Muldoon (0-1); C Gilligan (0-2), P Bradley (0-9, five frees), C Mullan (0-1).

Subs: E Bradley for Mullan (46 mins), C O’Kane for Gilligan (52 mins), P O’Hea for McBride (67 mins), P Murphy for Lynch (70 mins).

Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).