Kildare continued their fantastic run in the qualifiers with a 0-19 to 0-13 Round Four win over Derry in Croke Park on Saturday.
After sticking with the super-fit Lilywhites in the opening stages, the six-day turnaround was just too much for John Brennan’s men and Kildare just pulled away in the second half.
Kieran McGeeney made one late change to his team as he brought in James Kavanagh for Fionn Dowling and the early signs were that Derry won the tactical battle.
With Declan Mullan getting far too much space in the Oak Leaf attack, he opened the scoring and soon he had Derry 0-3 to 0-1 ahead. The powerful Tomás O’Connor had nabbed the first for Kildare but the blonde destroyer of Meath was well marshalled in the opening half.
Johnny Doyle got off the mark to reach 50 consecutive games with a score to narrow the gap to just one and Robert Kelly levelled matters after 11 minutes.
The sides would be level six times in the opening half, but Derry could have taken control midway through the half. Mark Lynch was bearing down on the Kildare goal but he flicked a pass to Enda Muldoon and though he converted to the net the goal was ruled out for a square ball. It was a tight, but probably correct, decision.
Mullan levelled matters for the sixth and final time at 0-7 each with half an hour gone but from there Kildare took over. Doyle, Eamonn O’Callaghan and Kavanagh tapped over three quick points to give Kildare a three-point margin at the break.
The second half was dominated by the men in green as Kavanagh’s inclusion began to look like a master stroke by McGeeney. The Ballymore Eustace man was at the centre of everything, and he landed two more points in the second half. Conleith Gilligan was one bright spot for Derry as he managed three second half points but Kildare deservedly progress.