Dermot Earley continued his comeback from a knee injury as Kildare edged out Mayo in an exciting senior football challenge at Longwood, Co. Meath last night.

Kildare 1-15
Mayo 1-14


The All-Star midfielder played the last 40 minutes of the tie, which was played over three periods of 25 minutes, giving rise to hopes that he will be fit to start Saturday week's Leinster SFC quarter-final against Louth. Earley also featured for around half an hour of last Saturday's senior challenge defeat to Cork in Cashel, and has reported no adverse reaction since.

Mayo, who have been in a training camp in Maynooth's Carton House this week, came into the game on the back of an impressive run of challenge match victories, but they played second fiddle to Kildare for long stages with Kieran McGeeney's side kicking 15 wides compared to the Westerners' four.

Eamonn Callaghan found the net for the Lilywhites inside the opening minute and they went on to lead by 1-5 to 0-4 at the end of the first period thanks to points from Padraig O'Neill, Alan Smith and John Doyle.

Kildare had stretched their lead to 1-12 to 0-8 after the second period, but Mayo finished the game very strongly, outscoring their opponents by 1-6 to 0-3 with Andy Moran netting for a rebound.

Moran top-scored with 1-4 (0-3 from frees) for John O'Mahony's side, while Callaghan was Kildare's scorer-in-chief with 1-2. Tweet

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