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Afternoon all and welcome to the first of our back-to-back Qualifier liveblogs this afternoon.
The double-header in Croker will be the focus of most of our attention today, but we’ll be keeping you posted with regular updates from all of today’s Round 3 and Round 4 football games.
We’re just under ten minutes away from throw-in in Headquarters, so I’ll go grab the team-news and we’ll be ready to roll.
One late change for Kildare – James Kavanagh in to replace Fionn Kavanagh at corner-forward.
Kildare: S Connolly; A McLoughlin, M Foley, H McGrillen; G White, M O’Flaherty, E Bolton; J Doyle, D Flynn; P O’Neill, E O’Flaherty, E Callaghan; R Kelly, T O’Connor, J Kavanagh.
Three changes to the Derry team as listed in the match programme. Declan Mullan, Kevin McCloy and Gerard O’Kane all start.
Derry: D Devlin, SL McGoldrick, K McGuckin, D McBride, G O’Kane, C Kielt, K McCloy, J Diver, M Friel, M Lynch, D Mullan, B McGoldrick, E Muldoon, J Kielt, C Gilligan.
We’re off and running. Declan Mullan kicks the opening score to put Derry into an early lead. Derry 0-01 Kildare 0-00
Tomas O’Connor posts a quick riposte for the Lilywhites, twisting and turning before kicking the point off his right. Derry 0-01 Kildare 0-01
Derry have started brightly, showing no signs of a hangover after their six-day turnaround. A lovely passage of movement opens the door for Sean Leo McGoldrick who points, with Declan Mullan following up with his second of the afternoon shortly afterwards. Derry 0-03 Kildare 0-01
Johnny Doyle slots over his first of the day from a free. Derry 0-03 Kildare 0-02
A great point by Kildare corner-forward Robert Kelly under pressure from Declan McBride. All square here, Derry 0-03 Kildare 0-03.
Enda Muldoon puts Derry back in front before Kildare storm back down the pitch, Tomas O’Connor playing Robert Kelly in for the equalising score. Derry 0-04 Kildare 0-04
Mark Lynch squares to Enda Muldoon who fists the ball into the net but it’s chalked off by referee Syl Doyle. Muldoon was marginally inside the square by the looks of things.
A point apiece for James Kielt and Conleth Gilligan put Derry quickly back in front. Derry 0-06 Kildare 0-05
Referee Syl Doyle awards Kildare a rather soft free. Johnny Doyle isn’t too bothered as to why it was awarded – he sticks it over the posts to level matters. Derry 0-06 Kildare 0-06
Kieran McGeeney obviously wasn’t too pleased with how Gary White was dealing with the threat of Sean Leo McGoldrick. The wing-back is hauled off to be replaced by Ollie Lyons.
Hugh McGrillen pushes unopposed on from the full-back line, pointing beautifully to put the Lilywhites back into the lead. Kildare 0-07 Derry 0-06
28 minutes gone, and Declan Mullen picks his third point of the afternoon with a measured kick. Kildare 0-07 Derry 0-07
Oooh, was that the right decision from James Kavanagh? He races towards the Derry goal but, instead of passing to Tomas O’Connor who was in acres of space, he fires over the bar for a point. That has to go down as a half-chance in my book. Kildare 0-08 Derry 0-07
Barry McGoldrick is booked for what looked to be quite a fair challenge on Johnny Doyle. Doyle dusts himself off and does the necessary. Kildare 0-09 Derry 0-07
Joe Diver storms through the middle with a point that might just rally the Derry troops. Kildare 0-09 Derry 0-08
Two excellent scores in quick succession for Kildare to end the half. Morgan O’Flaherty plays in Eamonn Callaghan for the first before James Kavanagh adds another cracking solo score. Kildare 0-11 Derry 0-08
HALF TIME: Kildare 0-11 Derry 0-08
Feel free to send in your thoughts and comments on the first half. I’ll be back in a quick second.
Having heard from the Derry bench at half-time, they appear adamant that Muldoon couldn’t have been inside the square ahead of the ball because it was played in from the side. I’m not 100% sure myself, but surely in very marginal cases such as this, the benefit of the doubt should be given to the attacker, no?
Our man in the middle, Syl Doyle, has previous in this regard – he’s the man who disallowed Graham Geraghty’s goal against Kildare earlier this season.
We’re back underway in Croker. Eoin O’Flaherty fists the first point of the second half over the bar, extending Kildare’s lead to four. Kildare 0-12 Derry 0-08
Conleth Gilligan points from a free to reduce Derry’s deficit to three. Kildare 0-12 Derry 0-09
The Derry back-line are having quite an unpleasant afternoon, and their indiscipline is proving costly. Johnny Doyle points another free – his fifth of the game – to restore Kildare’s four-point margin. Kildare 0-13 Derry 0-09
Gerard O’Kane briefly narrows the gap again, but it’s becoming increasingly futile because Tomas O’Connor and James Kavanagh are having it all their own way down the other end of the pitch. They tack on a point each to open up a five-point gap. Kildare 0-15 Derry 0-10
If you’re John Brennan, surely it’s about time to start thinking of some serious changes. That whole “six days” argument isn’t really going to wash if Derry are dumped out of the Championship in 20 minutes time.
A pair of bad wides for Kildare as Eoin O’Flaherty misses a free and Robert Kelly hooks a point wide from play. They need to open up a bit of a gap here in order to avoid any late jitters. They don’t look to be in any real danger as things stand though.
Barry McGoldrick briefly cuts the deficit to four points, but it’s only a matter of moments before Johnny Doyle slots a point to make it a five-point game with 11 minutes remaining. Kildare 0-16 Derry 0-11
Conleth Gilligan keeps Derry in touch. From the “stating the obvious” department: a goal here would be huge for Derry. Kildare 0-16 Derry 0-12
James Kavanagh keeps Derry at arm’s length with another well-taken score. He’s been impressive today. Kildare 0-17 Derry 0-12
Padraig O’Neill is given absolutely acres of space by the Derry defence and he kicks a wonderful point from distance to extend Kildare’s advantage. They’ve really outplayed Derry here today, kicking more than double the amount of wides and they’re still six points up. Kildare 0-18 Derry 0-12
Conleth Gilligan points another free, but with four minutes plus stoppage time remaining, it’s unlikely to be enough. Kildare 0-18 Derry 0-13
There’ll be one minute of additional time played. Johnny Doyle turns provider, playing in Ronan Sweeney to make it Kildare 0-19 Derry 0-13.
So, that’s that. Kildare’s performance will do nothing to deter those who claim they are the best outside bet of this year’s All-Ireland. They worked tirelessly from start to finish and, although they kicked some sloppy wides, they showed that they are well able to take their points. Kieran McGeeney will be delighted by the performance of Tomas O’Connor and James Kavanagh in particular, who tormented the Derry defence throughout.
Coming off the back of a tough defeat last weekend, Derry played well but simply couldn’t cause Kildare any real problems.
That’s our lot for the moment. Join me for the Cork-Down liveblog in a couple of minutes.
Well done Ulster, great result.
Well done Ulster. A home fixture is deserved at this stage.
Well done ulster but after this result against an average side ulster fans think they’re going to win the world Cup and should have 15 players on the lions, it’s absolutely hilarious
@Michael Oats: what’s with the sour grapes? They got their deserved win and the fans are within their rights to celebrate and dream of big things. The Challenge Cup is not an easy competition to win either, the ruthless needed in the knock out stages is as ferocious as you’d expect and fair dues to Ulster for the win. As for players on the Lions that depends on Gats and what he wants from individuals fitting into HIS team, not the performance of Ulster as a team.
@Michael Oats: Michael, you need to get out a little more. Where did this come from? As. Leinster fan, I cheered them to the finish an celebrated a great performance. It augurs well for the future of both Ulster and Irish rugby. What was it Brendan Behan said about the begrudgers?
@SPQH: ah theres no sour grapes here. I actually like Dan mcfarland as a coach – has been very good everywhere he’s coached – and some of the players are alright club players too tbf. It’s the fans that make them out to be spartan warriors and world beaters after every game they win against poor opposition gets me in fits of laughter every time… On a side note “Gats” You know him personally do ya? Lol
@Michael Oats: you are a very embittered Musterman. I won’t call you a Munster supporter as they are fair-minded.
@Michael Oats: that’s a very odd comment to be making unprompted. Just say well done and ignore the chip on your shoulder
@Trevor Johnston: Munster Abu trev
@Michael Oats: why so bitter? That’s 2 away wins on the trot in England, and Saints are a decent side. It’s a great win and chance of a cup. And a couple of Lions is a possibility, don’t be so odd
@Michael Oats: They probably are the 2nd best province
@Trevor Johnston: he is probably just annoyed that if Ulster won silverware, Munster will be the only province not to have won a competition in the last decade.
@Michael Oats: troll harder
@Joe Vlogs: I rather we didn’t win a second rate trophy tbh. Challenge Cup against what? English teams rolling out second strings. Treviso were in the quarter final and agen were in the last 16, neither of those teams have won a game all year. But go on ulster have your day. Lol
@rugbyanbeer: this is the kind of fan I’m talking about. Hahaha
@Michael Oats: ulster play a great brand of rugby and have been the 2nd best side in the league and in Ireland for a while now. Some of their home grown talent are simply fantastic rugby players. You need to find a different sport if you can’t appreciate how ulster play rugby.
@Michael Oats: a) I’m not from Ulster b) I guess that explains why Munster don’t win anything…they don’t really want to, you know. Saving their tinder for the Rainbow cup or something serious like that.
Congratulations Ulster
Great win and have to say did not look likely at HT. Hope Lowrey learns a lot from that game for he is an exciting prospect. …..but he’s not going to suck in defenders and offload in the tackle very often and running up blind alleys gets him turned over like you would a baby in a cot. His strength is that he’s a space user not a space creator . Get him running off the shoulders of fellas that can take the hit and offload in the tackle and not sure 15 is suited to him…might be worth giving him a protracted run at 10. Played last night like a chap that has started to believe the hype. Some of his decision making was poor.
@Michael Murray: not his best game. Hopefully he will learn.
@Trevor Johnston: …looks every inch a footballer….I’m sure he will. Given he is such a unique package with incredible potential ,his coaches and mentors have a hell of a responsibility to help get the best out of himself and reach his full potential.
@Michael Murray: to be fair he is a 10 playing at 15. He has been impressive in general but these blips will happen
@Dave O Keeffe: I know and that makes it even more important that he’s looked after particularly well.
@Michael Murray: Super talented but because of his size has to be used properly. Has the skills for 10 but I doubt he’d be able for the hits Sexton has taken over the years.
FB would appear to be his best option. Wasn’t great yesterday but any player can have an off day.
After 2 away wins Ulster definitely deserve a home game. Great for Irish rugby if they can pull it off.