Derry 1-18
Carlow 2-9

Derry Senior footballers showed no ill-effects of a long journey to the Midlands as they showed enough to advance to Monday's Round 2 qualifier draw, thanks to a six-point win over 13-man Carlow at Dr Cullen Park.

Eoin Bradley fired 1-6 as Derry comfortably advanced as Derry never looked too troubled in a game, which Carlow failed to lead.

Eoin's brother Paddy failed to travel with the Oak Leaf squad, but the visitors did just enough to impress, withstanding a 60th minute Daniel St Ledger goal.

Indeed Carlow's woes were compounded late on following the dismissals of defender Alan Curran and forward JJ Smith late on, through red cards.

Damien Cassidy's charges showed firm dominance in the midfield sector in the opening 10 minutes, and this was also reflected on the scoreboard, as the Oak Leafers quickly powered 0-4 to 0-0 in front.

Cathal McKeever, Mark Craig, Mark Lynch and Emmet McGuckian all fired early points, with the visitors defence showing particular attacking promise in the fifth minute, when half-back Craig latched on to the end of a Brian Og McAlary pass.

Carlow were goal hungry early on, but Daniel St Ledger blazed his seventh minute shot wide of the target, while Barry Gillis marshalled well to punch out a second effort soon-after.

But a sustained period of Carlow pressure was rewarded in the 12th minute, when Derry's defence were caught napping, after St Ledger broke up an Oak Leafers clearance, with Carpenter finishing the ball to the net, to tie the contest at 1-1 to 0-4.

However, Derry bounced back, with a trio of Derry frees - two from James Kielt and another from Lynch edging the visitors to a 0-7 to 1-1 lead in the 15th minute.

The hosts failed to lie down and showed tremendous work-rate, with Simon Rea (2) and Carpenter claiming points, to leave the sides dead-locked for the second time.

But when the likes of Eoin Bradley and Lynch ran at the Carlow defence, they caused the hosts huge problems; with Bradley exposing a gap in the hosts rear-guard, and penetrating the back of the Carlow net to push his side 1-8 to 1-5 clear with a 30th minute goal.

Carlow cut the deficit to the minimum at the interval, but this was as close as the hosts would get to the visitors, who firmly upped the anti in the second half.

Bradley, continued to be Carlow's tormentor in chief on the restart, and despite St Ledger's late goal giving life to the hosts, the dismissal of Alan Curran and JJ Smith through red cards late on, summed up the hosts woes, as Derry progressed.

Derry - B Gillis; B Og McAlary, G O'Kane, D McBride; M Craig (0-1), B McGoldrick, C Kielt; J Diver, J Kielt (0-3, 3f); C McKeever (0-1), M Lynch (0-4, 4f), E McGuckian (0-1); E Bradley (1-6, 3f), E Muldoon (0-1), R Wilkinson. Subs - M McGoldrick for B McGoldrick (HT); D Mullan (0-1) for McGuckian (HT); F Doherty for Diver (49); R Convery for Kielt (57).

Carlow - J Clarke; P Murphy, S Redmond, B Kavanagh; T Bolger, J Hayden, A Curran; T Walsh, D Foley; A Kelly, M Carpenter (1-1), S Gannon (0-1); S Rea (0-2, 1f), D St Ledger (1-4, 3f), JJ Smith. Subs - P Cashin for P Murphy (40); J Murphy for Foley (45); P Broderick (0-1) for Rea (48); K Nolan for Bolger (55); J Kavanagh for Carpenter (66)

Ref - M Condon (Waterford) Tweet

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