Kildare 1-17 Tipperary 0-8

KILDARE MANAGER Kieran McGeeney was not getting carried away by his side’s 12-point win at Semple Stadium on Saturday night.

“We have a long way to go”, the former Armagh star said, but added, “any win is a good win after last week”.

McGeeney said that Kildare were much improved on last week when they lost to Down. “We are not as good as some might think, but we are not as bad as last week. We have Donegal next and they will be tough. The big pitch suited us . We played Tipperary twice last year and we got our fill with them. We came here with a point to prove and we did just that.”

A Ken Donnelly goal for Kildare after five minutes put them in the driving seat and they never looked back. Dermot Earley might have had a second for them nearing half-time, but Ciarán McDonald took the ball off the Tipperary line.

Kildare led 1-5 to 0-4 at the interval. Tipperary then had midfielder Hugh Coghlan red-carded for a rash tackle on Darryl Flynn in the 50th minute.

It was an impressive showing by Kildare with key performances from Darryl Flynn, Dermot Earley, Hugh McGrillen, James Kavanagh and Karl Ennis.

KILDARE: S McCormack; A MacLochlainn, J McGrillen, E Bolton; M Foley, B Flanagan, M Scanlon; D Flynn, D Earley(0-1); D Whyte(0-1), A Rainbow, P O Neill (0-3); K Donnelly (1-0), K Ennis (0-4,2f), J Kavanagh (0-7, 4fs). Subs: D Hendy for McGrillen; R Sweeney for Rainbow; H Lynch for Whyte; K Cribbin (0-1) for Foley; D Lyons for Bolton.

TIPPERARY: M O’Donnell; C Morrissey, P Codd, C McDonald; R Costigan, N Curran, C Aylward; G Hannigan, H Coghlan; J Cagney(0-1), P Austin, P Acheson; C Sweeney (0-3,1f), S Grogan, B Grogan (0-2, 1f); Subs: B Mulvihill for Cagney; B Coen for S Grogan; A Rockett for Austin; S Hahessy (0-2) for B Grogan; C McGrath for Codd.

Referee: A Mangan (Kerry).