Kirwan stars as Kildare fast start continues in Sligo

Full-forward Darragh Kirwan was the star for Kildare as he contributed 1-05, including a first-half two-pointer and a polished second-half goal, as the Lilywhites boosted their promotion hopes with a 1-16 to 0-13 defeat of a dogged Sligo at Markievicz Park.

Sligo were in the game at half-time as they only trailed by a point, 0-09 to 0-08, but Kildare showed their scoring power in the second-half.

Still, it was until the last 10 minutes that Kildare took charge and took the spoils for their second win of the campaign, with Sligo having lost twice from their opening two fixtures.

In beautiful spring sunshine, the first-half was generally competitive.

Kildare were a threat early on and bagged the game's opening two points through Niall Kelly.

Sligo, with team captain Niall Murphy back in the starting line-up, soon settled and were 0-03 to 0-02 up by the 12th minute thanks to scores from Alan Reilly, Darragh Cummins and Niall Murphy, who converted a free.

An upright denied Kildare a two-pointer when David Hyland’s effort came off the woodwork after 10 minutes - three minutes later Darragh Kirwan raised the only orange flag of the opening period when he landed an effort from outside the scoring arc.

By the 24th minute Kildare had moved 0-08 to 0-04 in front after further good scores, including efforts from Ryan Sinkey and Alex Beirne.

Sligo outscored Kildare for the remainder of the first-half, 0-04 to 0-01, as Darragh Cummins, Patrick O’Connor, Niall Murphy and Alan McLoughlin found the target for the hosts.

Seven of Kildare’s nine points in that first-half came from inside forwards Ryan Sinkey, Darragh Kirwan and Niall Kelly. Darragh Kirwan was denied a certain goal after 34 minutes because Sligo custodian Aidan Devaney produced a