Kildare had 13 different scorers as they put the miserable season behind them with a resounding victory over Longford at their centre of excellence at Manguard Park.
Any concerns that Kildare supporters may have had about their team's application in the Tailteann Cup were swiftly dismissed with a clinical and ruthless display.
Kildare have been one of the lowest scorers in the country during 2024. In the Leinster semi-final last time out, they kicked a whole host of wides in their defeat to Louth.
Here in the familiar environment of a pitch where they regularly train, they looked right at home and they scored 1-16 in the first half while kicking just one wide.
Darragh Kirwan scored the first point of the game and he set the tone with a superb display at centre forward and he finished the game with six points.
But he wasn’t on his own and Longford were mere bystanders as Kildare took out the frustration of a season that saw them lose eight of their games before this match.
A lack of confidence has been at the heart of many of Kildare’s defeats but that morale began to grow as the scores flowed.
Although they hadn’t scored from play, Longford were in touch by the midway point of the first half, trailing 0-05 to 0-03, but they couldn’t keep pace as Kildare stepped up a gear.
Corner-back Ryan Houlihan scored before two more from Kirwan.
Kildare’s only wide in the first came from a glorious goal chance for Mick O’Grady in the 21st minute but just five minutes later they got the goal they deserved when Paddy Woodgate rounded off a flowing move involving Daniel Flynn and Houlihan.
It was 1-15 to 0-05 at half time and things hardly got any better for Longford in the second half with Kevin Flynn and championship debutants Darragh Swords and Rian Teahan coming off the bench to join in the scoring act.
Woodgate scored his, and Kildare’s, second goal in the 52nd minute after Aaron Masterson ripped the ball away from Daniel Mimnagh and fed him the ball and he neatly beat Paddy Collum.
Darren Gallagher pulled back a consolation goal for Longford in the 59th minute but it was a miserable outing for Paddy Christie’s team and Paddy McDermott put the icing on the cake for Kildare with their third goal in injury time.
Kildare: Mark Donnellan; Ryan Houlihan (0-01), Mick O’Grady, Ryan Burke; Tony Archbold (0-02), Brian Byrne, Jack Sargent (0-02); Aaron Masterson (0-01), Brendan Gibbons; Shane Farrell (0-01), Darragh Kirwan (0-06), Paddy McDermott (1-02); Paddy Woodgate (2-01), Daniel Flynn (0-02), Kevin Feely (0-04, 0-02ms).
Subs: Kevin Flynn (0-01) for Gibbons (44), Killian Galligan for Archbold (52), Darragh Swords (0-01) for D Flynn (54), Eoin Doyle for Burke (58), Rian Teahan (0-01) for Kirwan (62).
Longford: Patrick Collum; Patrick Fox, Oisin O’Toole, Bryan Masterson; Dessie Reynolds, Michael Quinn, Joseph Hagan (0-02); Ryan Moffett, Darren Gallagher (1-04, 0-04fs); Aaron Farrell (0-02), Daniel Mimnagh, Daniel Reynolds; Mark Hughes, Dylan Farrell (0-03, 0-02fs), Keelin McGann.
Subs: Paddy Kiernan for Daniel Reynolds (ht), Enda Macken for McGann (42), Cathal McCabe for Quinn (50), Jack Macken for Mimnagh (57), Ruairi Harkin for Hagan (62).
Referee: Brendan Griffin (Kerry).
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