Galway preserved their Division Two status and condemned Kildare to the drop with a 3-12 to 1-12 victory at Tuam.

Shane Walsh bagged a couple of goals for the hosts and Fiontan O Curraoin weighed in with the other one as Kildare, who were in the top flight this time last year, were condemned to spend next season on the third tier.

Daniel Flynn netted late on for Jason Ryan's charges, for whom Mickey Conway struck the post from a penalty moments earlier. O Curraoin was dismissed for his part in that incident, picking up a second yellow card.

Patrick Sweeney spurned a glorious Galway goal chance in the 14th minute but Walsh found the net ten minutes later to assure his side of a 1-10 to 0-7 interval advantage.

Kildare rallied with successive points from Eoghan O'Flaherty, Alan Smith and Daniel Flynn upon the restart to halve the deficit but O'Curraoin's goal in the 48th minute removed their stuffing. When Walsh grabbed his second three-pointer twelve minutes from time, the visitors' ship had well and truly sailed: 3-10 to 0-10.

Galway - M Breathnach (0-1'45); J Duane, F Hanley, C Sweeney; G O'Donnell, G Bradshaw, P Varley; F O Curraoin (1-1), P Conroy (0-3, 2f); G Sice (0-1), S Walsh (2-1), S Denvir; P O Griofa (0-4, 3f), P Sweeney (0-1), M Lundy. Subs: L Silke for G Bradshaw, D Comer for P Sweeney, A Varley for D Comer, C Healy for P O Griofa, E Hoare for S Denvir.

Kildare - M Donnellan; O Lyons, C Fitzpatrick, M O'Grady; P Kelly, F Conway, E Bolton; G White (0-2), P Cribbin (0-2); K Cribbin, E O'Flaherty (0-1f), F Dowling; A Smith (0-2), P Fogarty (0-1), E Callaghan (0-1). Subs: D Hyland for C Fitzpatrick, D Flynn (1-1) for P Fogarty, T Moolick for G White, C McNally for E Callaghan, M Conway (0-2f) for E O'Flaherty, G Farrell for K Cribbin.

Referee - S Hurson.

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