Early intent pleases Dowdall as St Loman’s advance

St Loman's manager Paddy Dowdall was thrilled with the outcome of Sunday's Leinster quarter-final at Pearse Park and paid tribute to the collective resolve of his side.

"The players put in a brilliant shift, overall. They (Killoe) turned over a lot of ball and in our half and it allowed us to transition fast. We have a couple of great forwards and they put the chances away early.

“As a unit, defensively and attacking wise, we did really well today. The kick-outs were good. Obviously we wanted to push up on their kick-outs in the first half and I thought we did it really well," he observed after the final whistle.

St Loman's led by 12 points after 20 minutes following an early Ronan O'Toole goal and it was 1-18 to 0-7 in the Mullingar side's favour after 50 minutes. It showed how dominant they were and one of their substitutes, Fola Ayorinde almost scored a second goal after a powerful solo run.

"We have some fantastic players coming in - Kelvin, Tristan Graham and Fola (Ayorinde) for example. Ryan Jones also came in and there’s experience in the panel. The players who were brought in didn’t stop the flow of the game. They slotted in and we kept pushing on," remarked Dowdall.

After Sunday's very facile win, it's on to a much sterner test against last year's Leinster finalists Naas in the semi-final on Sunday week and Dowdall knows it will be a very different proposition.

"Moorefield and Sarsfields were the powerhouses in Kildare, but Naas have come good in recent years and you can see that in the senior titles they have won. We will prepare well for it; we won’t fear them and we’re looking forward to a good battle," he added.