Despite having Fergal Conway sent off in the second half, Kildare powered to a 1-10 to 0-10 victory over Cork at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

It was looking good for the Rebel County when Conway was dismissed on 42 minutes after they had reeled off three unanswered points to draw level early in the second half, but three late points from substitute Neil Flynn ultimately saw the visitors over the line as they recorded their first win of the campaign.

The Lilywhites - who had just 13 men on the pitch at the final whistle - led by 1-4 to 0-5 at the interval, Kevin Feely brilliantly despatching an eleventh-minute penalty low to the bottom left corner of the Cork net. Michael Hurley and Fionn Dowling traded the first two scores and Luke Connolly’s free had the Leesiders in front before Feely netted to make it 1-1 to 0-2.

Points from Hurley and Ruairi Deane drew the hosts level by the midway stage in the first half only for Adam Tyrrell (free), Ben McCormack and Jimmy Hyland to put three in it, Hurley’s third leaving two between the sides at the interval

Tyrrell’s free opened the second-half scoring but the Rebels were quickly back on terms through Connolly and Hurley (two), the Lilywhites reduced to 14 men when Conway dragged Deane back and received a black card, which quickly became red as he’d already been yellow-carded.

But an excellent Feely strike off the left boot following great foraging from McCormack nudged the 14 men back in front on 48 minutes and the industrious McCormack doubled the difference with a wonderful strike 15 minutes from the end, after Mark Donnellan had pulled off a superb save to Matthew Taylor a goal.

Sean White’s point was cancelled out by Flynn on the hour and Donnellan once more came to Kildare’s rescue as he diverted a Deane rasper onto the crossbar with his fingertips.

Flynn registered his second successive point five minutes from time and his nonchalant free from the deck was cancelled out by Mark Collins in the second of seven minutes of injury time, Kildare reduced to 13 men as Keith Cribbin was black-carded and sin-binned late on.

The Rebels had Brian Hurley sent off at the death as Kildare came away with a massive victory – their third consecutive win over Cork.

Kildare - M Donnellan; M Dempsey, M O’Grady, D Hyland; J Murray, E Doyle, K Cribbin; K Feely (1-1, 1-0pen), F Dowling (0-1); C Hartley, F Conway, D Slattery; A Tyrrell (0-2f), B McCormack (0-2), J Hyland (0-1m). Subs: A Masterson for C Hartley, N Flynn (0-3, 1'45) for F Dowling, C O’Donoghue for J Murray, E O’Flaherty for A Tyrrell, J Gibbons for J Hyland.

Cork - M White; K O’Donovan, K Flahive, C Dennehy; J Loughrey, S Cronin, M Taylor; I Maguire, R O’Toole; T Clancy, E McSweeney, M Collins (0-1f); M Hurley (0-5), R Deane (0-1m), L Connolly (0-2, 1f, 1m). Subs: P Kerrigan for E McSweeney, S White (0-1) for R O’Toole, L O’Donovan for J Loughrey, B Hurley for L Connolly, K O’Hanlon for T Clancy.

Referee - S Lonergan.

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