Kildare find to enough to scrape past Down

Kildare were far from their best at the Centre of Excellence at Hawkfield but they were still able to grind out a 1-17 to 0-19 victory over Down in Division 2A of the Allianz Hurling League.

A 37th-minute missed penalty by James Burke was one of 16 wides on the day for Kildare and the game looked to be slipping away from them when Paul Sheehan scored two points to push Down two clear with six minutes of normal time to play.

Kildare responded by finally adding some quality to their shooting to score the next four points of the game, the decisive period of the game.

Goalkeeper Paddy McKenna scored one of those points from a monstrous free and he also made three excellent saves in the second half, including one exceptional effort to keep out an Oisin MacManus shot in the 45th minute.

The home side started well and were 0-04 to 0-01 ahead after seven minutes but gradually errors began to creep into their play and three of Down's points came as a result of poor passing from Kildare as they moved into an 0-11 to 0-06 lead by the half hour mark.

Crucially Kildare were able to get a goal against the run of play. Cathal Dowling was dispossessed as he headed for goal in the 32nd minute and with the ball on ground Cathal McCabe arrived with perfect timing and smashed the ball past Stephen Keith.

Down led 0-14 to 1-09 at the break but it was the home side who started better once again once the ball was thrown in. Burke won a penalty himself two minutes after the restart but he drilled his effort wide, one of 11 for Kildare in the second period.

Paul Dolan and Rian Boran scored the first two points of the second half before Down took the lead again when Sheehan landed their first point of the second half in the 52nd minute.

Brian Byrne tied