Kildare triumph as both sides finish with 14 men

Kildare 0-12 DIT 0-8: Kildare recorded their second win of the 2013 O’Byrne Cup by a four-point margin at a foggy Athy last …

Kildare 0-12 DIT 0-8:Kildare recorded their second win of the 2013 O'Byrne Cup by a four-point margin at a foggy Athy last night.

This game was in huge doubt less than half an hour before throw-in due to thick fog but that lifted and the game was played mostly in good conditions, although the fog did return again for the final five minutes.

Kildare captain Mikey Conway and Cork’s Mark Collins shared the game’s opening four points between them inside the opening nine minutes.

The home side stepped up a gear after that and rattled off four points in a row with newcomers Cathal McNally and 19-year-old Daniel Flynn catching the eye.

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Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea was at the heart of the students’ attempts to get back into the game but even though they hit the final two points of the half, they trailed 0-9 to 0-5 at the break.

There were plenty of substitutions on both sides in the second period and that seemed to upset the game’s rhythm .

Kildare also had to contend with going down to 14 men in the 49th minute when Gary White was dismissed after he picked up a second yellow card.

Despite that, Kildare hit the next three points of the game, two of those coming from Johnny Doyle frees.

Kildare failed to score in the final 14 minutes but DIT could only muster efforts from Ross Hazley and Mark Collins in that time.

Collins’ game was to end prematurely though when he was shown a second yellow card for an innocuous foul on Hugh Lynch and Kildare held on for a deserved win.