London 3-16
Kildare 0-19
Martin Duggan hit a magnificent hat trick as London overcame Christy Ring Cup holders Kildare at the second attempt in Newbridge on Saturday afternoon.
The two teams had played out an exciting draw seven days previously in Ruislip and although, this game lacked the thrills and spills of that encounter, London manager Fergus McMahon will be pleased with the manner in which his team controlled the title holders on their home turf.
Kildare started well and led 0-6 to 0-3 after 16 minutes before Peter Phelan and Duggan struck points to cut the gap back to one.
Duggan’s first goal arrived in the 24th minute when London quickly moved the sliotar from one end of the pitch to the other after some sloppy Kildare play and Duggan blasted home.
His second arrived five minutes later after Kildare spurned a number of opportunities to clear their lines and once in possession, Duggan fired low into the bottom corner of the Kildare net.
That helped London into a 2-8 to 0-9 half time lead and London were still ahead 10 minutes into the second half after Phelan and Mark Delaney evenly split the first six points after the restart between them.
The gap was at six points in the 52nd minute when influential Kildare man Paul Divilly was shown a straight red card for an off the ball incident. Michael Ivors had a chance to finish the game as a contest a minute later, but he was denied by a superb save from Kildare ‘keeper Paul Dermody.
The red card actually seemed to bring the best from Kildare and they scored five of the next six points to leave just two points between the teams with six minutes to play.
However, that man Duggan popped up once again and completed his hat trick in the 65th minute and from there on, London were able to comfortably see out the victory. The result means that London will now play Derry next weekend in Round 2A while Kildare travel to play Mayo in Round 2B.
Scorers for London: M Duggan 3-3, P Phelan 0-6 (5fs), M O'Dwyer 0-2, D Morkan 0-2 (1f), M Ryan 0-1, M Ivors 0-1, N Brophy 0-1.
Scorers for Kildare: M Delaney 0-10 (8fs), B Deay 0-2, M Moloney 0-2, G Keegan 0-2, P Divilly 0-1, K Whelan 0-1, D Flaherty 0-1.
London: J Barrett; C Hickey, L Gaule, K Fitzpatrick; C McAllinden, M Ryan, D Morkan; E Cooney, N Rogers; P Phelan, N Brophy, M Duggan, M Ivors, M O’Dwyer, B Gaffney. Subs: L Hands for Gaffney (43 mins), E Collins for Gaffney (51 mins), K Coen for Brophy (66 mins), P Murphy for Ivors (70 mins).
Kildare: P Dermody; N O’Muineachain, M Grace, J Doran; D Stapleton, D Young, E O’Neill; K Whelan, M Moloney; J Byrne, L Quinn, P Divilly, B Deay, E Dempsey, M Delaney. Subs: F O’Muineachain for Grace (36 mins), G Keegan for Whelan (38 mins), D Flaherty for Quinn (47 mins), N Kenny for Delaney (60 mins).
Referee: J O’Brien (Tipperary).
