JASON RYAN'S Kildare continued their revival, building their previous round victory over Offaly, after their demoralising Leinster defeat to the Dubs to rout Longford in Saturday night's All-Ireland SFC qualifier at Cusack Park. Mullingar.
Backed by the wind the Lilywhites set about their business from the first whistle with impressive intent to build a seven-point lead and though Longford whittled that back to four by the 34th minute, an Alan Smith point and Eamonn Callaghan goal saw Kildare lead 1-10 to 0-5 at the interval.
Kildare restarted the better to forge three further points clear and were never in any danger of being caught.
Longford's cause was not helped by what looked to be a case of mistaken identity in the 48th minute when ref Derek O'Mahoney sent off Diarmuid Masterson.
O'Mahoney flashed a yellow card before a red and confirmed afterwards that the sending off was for two yellow card offences, but everyone in the ground only had Barry Gilleran cautioned.
Kildare were leading by 12 points at that juncture Alan Smith's goal following a superb Mark Sherry run, making his senior championship debut,saw them sail out of sight.
After Smith's goal, now with Longford down to 14 men following the controversial dismissal of Masterson, it was very easy for Kildare. Ollie Lyons ventured forward to take a point when a goal might have been in the offing, while Emmet Bolton also got his customary score. Mikey Conway came on to kick three frees and there was an opportunity for Jason Ryan to hand out another championship debut to Cian O'Donoghue late on.
SCORERS- Kildare: E O'Flaherty 0-5 (4f), P Cribbin 0-4, A Smith, E Callaghan 1-1 each, M Conway 0-3 (3f), M Donnellan (2 '45'), P O'Neill, N Kelly 0-2 each, M Sherry, O Lyons, E Bolton, C McNally 0-1 each. Longford: B Kavanagh 0-7 (5f), L Connerton, R McEntire, R Connor, D Reynolds 0-1 each.
KILDARE: M Donnellan; C Fitzpatrick, M O'Grady, O Lyons; K Murnaghan, E Doyle, E Bolton; T Moolick, P Cribbin; P O'Neill, E O'Flaherty, C McNally; N Kelly, A Smith, E Callaghan. Subs: M Sherry for O'Neill (22 BC), H Lynch for Cribbin (49 BC), M Conway for Callaghan (56), P Kelly for Doyle (58), P Fogarty for Smith (60), C O'Donoghue for Bolton (66).
LONGFORD: P Collum; F Battrim, B Gilleran, C Farrelly; CP Smyth, B O'Farrell, D Masterson; M Quinn, K Diffley; S Doyle, R McEntire, D Reynolds; R Connor, B Kavanagh, L Connerton. Subs: D Brady for Smyth (25), P Foy for Diffley (45), P Gill for Doyle for (56), T Gallagher for Battrim (59), R McNerney for Connor (63).
REF: D O'Mahoney (Tipperary).
SFC QUALIFER: kildare 2-24 longford 0-11