July 23rd 2011 (Rd 4 Qualifier, Croke Park): Derry 0-13 Kildare 0-19
Our most recent fixture against the Lilywhites was played last July in Croke Park, six whole days after Derry's defeat to Donegal in the Ulster Final. The words 'hiding' and 'nothing' might have been at the forefront of Derry fans' minds as they made the trip to the Capital to play a Kildare side who were the form team in the country at that present moment. They had beaten Meath twice, and found themselves extremely unfortunate to suffer defeat against Dublin in a Leinster semi-final. They knew how to get on top of teams, grind them down, and - unlike some of their predecessors - could put scores on the board. Despite a burgeoning injury list, Derry started the game quite well, matching the Leinster side score for score, with Declan Mullan notching three first half points. Indeed, had it not been for an over-zealous and visually-challenged umpire, Enda Muldoon's palmed goal may have stood and Derry would have gone in at half-time level. Instead, we trailed by three points. And that was about as good as it got. Kildare kicked into another gear in the second half and a six-point loss ended what had been promising first championship season under John Brennan for Derry. Kildare went on to play in their fourth successive All-Ireland quarter-final where they were unceremoniously dumped out of the competition after a strangely compelling duel with Donegal.
February 20th 2011 (NFL, Newbridge): Kildare 0-11 Derry 0-13
During the early Spring of 2011, Derry travelled to Newbridge to take on Kieran McGeeney's side in a Division 2 NFL clash. The Oak Leafers were underdogs heading into the match despite having recorded victory against Tyrone in the league opener, and early on they lived up to their pre-match billing, going three points behind after 15 minutes. Derry then burst into life, with Conleith Gilligan and Paddy Bradley adding five points between them to give the away side a 0-7 to 0-5 half-time lead. In the second half Mark Lynch and Sean Leo McGoldrick also added scores to keep Derry's noses in front, whilst the Kildare attack struggled to both create and take chances at the other end. This was a surprising enough victory for Derry, but it was their sixth consecutive victory of 2011, with a win over Tyrone in the McKenna Cup Final to follow. Unfortunately our league form took a dip over the following three games, with big losses to both Donegal and Laois - who consequently gained promotion thanks to a better scoring average. The Lilywhites finished a point behind Derry in the standings after drawing against Donegal and suffering defeat to Tyrone. It all meant they get to meet again in 2012.
July 17th 2010 (Rd 3 Qualifier, Celtic Park): Derry 1-9 Kildare 2-17
A year before Kildare knocked us out of the Championship at Croke Park, they beat us in Celtic Park in a Round 3 qualifier. A very strange game was this one. Derry came out of the blocks like a house on fire (if such a thing is possible?) with Raymond Wilkinson grabbing a goal after only a minute and we soon opened up a five-point lead. By the end of the match the visitors had handed Derry their behinds on a silver platter, recording an eleven-point win after an insipid second-half performance from the Oak Leafers. Johnny Doyle was executioner in-chief scoring 0-8, while Eamon Callaghan tallied 1-4. Alan Smith scored the game's third goal. The Derry fans that were watching the game in Celtic Park (or at home on RTÉ) would have been left perplexed at how the game panned out. Having watched their side start brightly, the turnaround in fortunes was as surprising as it was emphatic, with the match over as a contest at an early stage. This was a Kildare team playing at their very highest level although they had made a habit that summer of giving up early leads, before storming to victory later in the game. It was a tactic that saw them subsequently defeat Monaghan and Meath to reach an All-Ireland semi-final, but they ran out of luck against Down when their last kick of the game smacked the crossbar. As for Derry, this defeat turned out to be Damian Cassidy's last game in charge. It had come on the back of a loss to Armagh in the Ulster preliminary round and a brace of qualifier victories over Carlow and Westmeath.
March 15th 2008 (NFL, Celtic Park): Derry 1-16 Kildare 0-8
Just looking at that scoreline has probably raised one or two eyebrows. This was a league campaign that ended very differently for both these squads. For Paddy Crozier's Derry outfit, they would go on to win the title after an exciting Final victory over Kerry at Parnell Park. Kildare meanwhile, got relegated. So in the Spring of 2008 these sides were playing at very different levels. This is a match that doesn't jump immediately from memory. It was played on a Saturday night, and was the second competitive game Derry played under the new floodlights at Celtic Park (Mayo, the previous month being the first). The home side got off to a flying start, and actually led by 12 points after only 25 minutes. That in itself was amazing enough, considering Kieran McGeeney - in his first season as manager - had his team playing a defensive brand of football (and drew against Tyrone that season 0-7 to 1-4). Mark Lynch opened the scoring with a goal after just 90 seconds, but Paddy Bradley was star of the show, finishing the game with nine points. Other scorers for Derry on the night included Enda Muldoon, Conleith Gilligan, James Conway and Liam Hinphey. Despite their differing league fortunes in 2008, the two teams had something of a reversal of fortunes in the Championship. Kildare made a reasonable impression on the All-Ireland series, reaching the All-Ireland quarter-final (albeit after a first round defeat to Wicklow in Leinster), whilst the Oak Leafers endured a miserable end to the summer - with defeats against Fermanagh and Monaghan - despite opening the Championship with a win over Donegal in Ballybofey.
February 25th 2007 (NFL, Newbridge): Kildare 0-10 Derry 0-7
This game truly is lost to the archives. So low key that it could have been left off this list and there wouldn't have been a single whimper of discontent. It was the final year of the Division 1A/Division 1B NFL farce, as the GAA finally decided that league realignment had been complete, with whoever finished in the top four of both sections moving into Division 1 for 2008. Derry were in Division 1B (for no real logical reason) and it was a very precarious situation for most teams, because whoever finished in the bottom two would find themselves playing Division 3 football the following year. In effect, half the league would end up getting relegated, so there wasn't much room for manoeuvre. The Oak Leafers set about it the hard way, losing convincingly to Westmeath at Celtic Park before this defeat to Kildare in Newbridge. It was a low-scoring game, thanks in part to some poor finishing on the part of the visitors. Paddy Bradley did not start the game and Derry shot nine wides in the second half alone. Conleith Gilligan was top scorer for the Oak Leafers with five points, but it was not enough to prevent a three-point defeat. We managed to pull ourselves into the top four by the end of the campaign nevertheless, recording impressive wins over Galway, Armagh and Down. On the final day of the league season, victory for Derry over Louth coupled with a Galway defeat to Down, meant that Derry would play Division 1 football in 2008.
July 1st 2006 (Rd 2 Qualifier, Celtic Park): Derry 1-17 Kildare 0-11
For our sixth most recent meeting with Kildare we've had to go all the way back to 2006. You might have to clear the memory banks a little bit for this one. 'The Da Vinci Code' was in the cinema and 'Maneater' by Nelly Furtado was in the charts. Bebo was all the rage, and there was a World Cup going on in Germany. In fact, this game was played as Wayne Rooney was getting sent off for England en route to an inevitable penalty shoot out defeat to Portugal in a dull quarter-final. But in Celtic Park, Derry we're having no such bother against John Crofton's Kildare side in a Round 2 All-Ireland qualifier. Just weeks earlier, the county was on a high after defeating Tyrone at Omagh in the first round of the Ulster Championship, in a game famous for the Oak Leafers managing to hold the Red Hands scoreless in the first half. But Derry then suffered a semi-final defeat to Donegal and found themselves stepping into the familiar territory contained behind the back door. This was the first time Derry had met the Lilywhites in championship football, and the result was never really in doubt for Paddy Crozier's side. Paddy Bradley top-scored with 0-6 while Johnny McBride - playing at midfield - scored the game's only goal in the 29th minute. Jim Kelly scored three points from centre-half forward and other scorers included Ciaran Mullan, Gavin Donaghy, Eoin Bradley and Mark Lynch, who started the game at centre half-back. The Kildare forwards struggled badly and managed to kick 12 wides. The Oak Leafers had recovered their championship campaign, and would play Longford in the next round. This is neither the time or the place to discuss that particular game.
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