Kildare dominate against Louth to stride into Leinster semis

A competitive middle third of this contest was sandwiched in between two utterly dominant spells from Kildare at O'Connor Park in Tullamore this afternoon, as the Lilywhites crushed any idea that Allianz League Division 3 champions Louth might be poised to cause an upset in the last of this weekend’s four Leinster football quarter-finals.

These two counties will play league football at the same level in 2023, but whether it was a difference in class or a difference in exposure to a higher tempo of football, Louth simply couldn’t keep tabs on Kildare in the early exchanges of this game.

With 22 minutes gone, Glenn Ryan’s men were 0-10 to 0-01 to the good, and effectively out of sight. Their tenth point, kicked by Paul Cribbin following superb defensive work from Ryan Houlihan to earn a turnover, meant all six starting Kildare forwards had scored from play at that early stage in proceedings.

Add in Kildare’s complete control of the midfield battle, where seven Louth restarts were won in the opening half, and a strong defensive performance where vim and vigour forced numerous spills of the wet ball out of Louth hands, and everything was going according to plan for the pre-match favourites.

Having endured that nightmare start, Louth actually found their feet a little, perhaps due to finally acclimatising to what was required.

They picked off three of the next four points, with Sam Mulroy showing glimpses of why he has become one of the most highly-rated attackers in the province on a day when Kildare denied him the oxygen of dead ball scoring chances. There were goal opportunities for the Wee County too, most notably a low shot from full back Bevan Duffy that was smothered by Mark Donnellan and a palm to the net from Liam Jackson