Kirwan stars as Kildare get better of Leitrim in Tailteann Cup

Kildare booked their place in the quarter-final of The Tailteann Cup with a 1-16 to 0-12 points win over Leitrim at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, Longford this evening.

Darragh Kirwan continued his brilliant form in this competition and the Naas man was the outstanding player on the field with a total of seven points, three in the first half.

Kildare led at the  break 1-8 to 0-5 but on the change of ends Leitrim certainly did themselves proud cutting the lead back to two points before Darragh Kirwan showed his class again with some marvellous points.

A win yes, but still a lot to do before the quarter-final in two weeks time but for now mission accomplished with three wins out of three on a final score line of Kildare 1-16 Leitrim 0-12.

Scorers: Kildare, Darragh Kirwan 0-7, Niall Kelly 1-1, Paddy Woodgate 0-4 (4 frees), Paddy McDermott 0-2, Kevin Feely 0-1 (free), Jack Sargent 0-1.

Leitrim, Tom Prior 0-2, Darragh Rooney 0-3 (1 free), Mark Plunkett 0-3, Catha McHugh 0-1, Aidan Flynn 0-1, Barry McNulty 0-1, Ryan O'Rourke 0-1.

KILDARE: Mark Donnellan; Mick O’Grady, Shea Ryan, Ryan Burke; Tony Archbold, Brian Byrne, Jack Sargent; Aaron Masterson, Kevin Flynn; Shane Farrell, Darragh Kirwan, Paddy McDermott; Paddy Woodgate, Niall Kelly, Kevin Feely. Subs: Alex Beirne for Shane Farrell (half-time); Kevin O'Callaghan for Kevin Flynn (46 minutes); Barry Kelly for Niall Kelly (55 minutes); Ryan Houlihan for Ryan Burke ((53 minutes); Shane O'Sullivan for Aaron Masterson (63 minutes).

LEITRIM: Nevin O Donnell; Cathal McHugh, Mark Diffley, Aidan Flynn; Donal Wrynn, Radek Oberwan, Tom Prior; Mark Plunkett, Barry McNulty; Jack Foley, Kieran Clancy, Ryan O'Rourke; Ben Guckian, Darragh Rooney, James Rooney, Paul Keaney. Subs: Riordan O'Rourke for Kieran Clancy (half-time); Arek Oberwan for Redek Oberwan (53 minutes); Darren Cox for Ben Guckian (53 minutes); Conor Reynolds for Cathal McHugh (53 minutes).

REFEREE: Noel Mooney, Cavan.