Kildare recorded a first League or Championship win over Dublin for over two decades, this afternoon at Newbridge, as they plunged their neighbours into major relegation trouble.
This was Kildare’s first win over Dublin, not including two O’Byrne Cup games, since the 2000 Leinster final replay, when Mick O’Dwyer was in charge of the lily whites.
Kildare hadn’t beaten Dublin in their last 11 League and Championship meetings - all in Croke Park.
This was also a first League meeting between the sides at Newbridge since 1995 all of 27 years ago.
At the final whistle there was a huge outpouring of emotion from the Kildare fans as their players celebrated a hard fought win.
Aaron Byrne had a late goal chance to tie it up for Dublin, but Kildare goalie, Aaron O’Neill saved with his legs.
Dublin's latest defeat was their fourth on the bounce in Division 1, and they’ll hardly be relishing a trip to face All-Ireland champions, Tyrone at Omagh in a fortnight.
Kildare go to Armagh next, and after moving onto three points they now have a serious chance of survival in Division 1.
One more win might even do it.
This one had a ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’ feel to it with the stand full long before throw-in, the stadium announcer calling on the crowd to stand and applaud Kildare onto the field and the national anthem belted out.
Playing with the breeze Kildare amassed a 0-8 to 0-4 half-time lead, although they did survive two major goal scares.
Just two minutes in Brian Fenton’s shot was saved by Kildare goalkeeper, O’Neill, with Tom Lahiff fisting over the follow-up to get Dublin up and running.
Dean Rock had a goal chance on 13 minutes, after great work by Sean Bugler and Ciaran Kilkenny, but as Rock attempted to draw the goalkeeper, Shea Ryan got a fine block in.
Kildare lost three kickouts in a row, but the same happened Dublin at one stage with the home crowd getting on Evan Comeford’s back after he hit the third one out over the sideline.
His Kildare counterpart, O'Neill would have even more bother getting his restarts away after the break into the breeze.
The half finished with a thumping Ben McCormack hit on Jonny Cooper, that saw McCormack having to go off for a spell before resuming.
Dublin started with Cooper at wing back, Lahiff at midfield and Brian Howard in the half forward line as they attempted to shore up a defence which has been left exposed in the early rounds of the League.
Kilkenny and Fenton carried the fight again, but the only serious support they got came from Sean Bugler who shot four points from play and was involved in three more.
Jimmy Hyland starred for Kildare, hitting 1-5, with 1-1 coming from play, two from marks and two from frees, one which he won himself.
In fact, Hyland was Kildare’s only scorer from play in the second half.
The introduction of Kevin Feely at midfield eased the pressure on O’Neill’s kickout, with Dublin setting a series of traps on short restarts and Kildare fortunate to survive one or two of them.
Feely plucked one great back and broke two more kickouts to his team mates to get Kildare up the field.
Kildare appeared to tire late on and were hemmed in for long spells of the second half, but a series of Dublin wides midway through the half kept them at bay.
Dublin had nine wides in total and dropped three efforts short while Kildare had five wides, dropped two short, hit a post and kicked into three blocks while shooting.
KILDARE: A O’Neill (0-1, f), M O’Grady, S Ryan, R Houlihan, T Archbold, J Murray, D Ryan, A Masterson, K Flynn (0-1), C Kavanagh, B McCormack (0-1), P Cribbin, P Woodgate (0-1,f), D Flynn (0-3), J Hyland (1-5, 2fs, 2 mks).
SUBS: J Sargent for Kavanagh 31mins, B McLoughlin for Woodgate 54mins, K Feely for Masterson 58mins, K O’Callaghan for Sargent 62mins, D Hyland for Ryan 68mins.
DUBLIN: E Comerford, M Fitzsimons, D Byrne, L Gannon (0-1), S McMahon, J Small, T Lahiff (0-1), B Fenton, B Howard, N Scully, C Kilkenny (0-2), S Bugler (0-4), R McGarry, L O’Dell, D Rock (0-4, 4fs).
SUBS: A Byrne for McGarry 50mins, R McDaid for Cooper 54mins, L O’Dell for Scully 68mins, A Wright for Howard 70mins.
REFEREE: S Hurson (Tyrone)
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