Johnny Doyle was the player who almost single-handedly ended Limerick's GAA Football Championship aspirations for another year.

The clever Doyle hit a wonderful 1-6 in Kildare's 1-11 to 0-11 victory over their plucky hosts at Pairc na Gael. He crashed home the game's only goal on 50 minutes to push Kildare into the lead for the first time, capitalising on a loss of possession by Limerick in the heart of their own defence.

" Really up until the goal we were wining some ball but were still always that two points behind Limerick. The ball was broken down by James Kavanagh who played in a superb ball then to Mickey Conway, who drew the 'keeper and I was sure he was going to have a shot on goal himself and was surprised when he threw the ball out to me," Doyle explained.

Added Kildare boss Kieran McGeeney: "Johnny Doyle's goal was superbly taken but the unselfish play of James Kavanagh and Michael Conway in the build-up to the score was crucial."

"Limerick are a great side and we knew that, particularly when you consider they should have been at least in a Munster Final. We always knew it was going to be tough to beat them, especially in Limerick but we stuck to our game plan all the way through. When we were three points down at half-time, I knew we were in there with a major shout."

Limerick had a great goal scoring opportunity themselves towards the finish of the opening-half, but the shot of Ian Ryan amazingly scraped the wrong side of the upright.

Limerick were 0-6 to 0-3 ahead after 20 minutes but unlike a week earlier there wasn't nearly as many scores and at the interval they still only led by three points.

The gap widened to four early in the second-half but only two further points arrived for the home side thereafter as Kildare landed 1-6, Doyle's goal the real heart-breaker with 15 minutes left to run.

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