Afternoon all and welcome to the first of our back-to-back Qualifier liveblogs this afternoon.

The double-header in Croker will be the focus of most of our attention today, but we’ll be keeping you posted with regular updates from all of today’s  Round 3 and Round 4 football games.

We’re just under ten minutes away from throw-in in Headquarters, so I’ll go grab the team-news and we’ll be ready to roll.

One late change for Kildare – James Kavanagh in to replace Fionn Kavanagh at corner-forward.

Kildare: S Connolly; A McLoughlin, M Foley, H McGrillen; G White, M O’Flaherty, E Bolton; J Doyle, D Flynn; P O’Neill, E O’Flaherty, E Callaghan; R Kelly, T O’Connor, J Kavanagh.

Three changes to the Derry team as listed in the match programme. Declan Mullan, Kevin McCloy and Gerard O’Kane all start.

Derry: D Devlin, SL McGoldrick, K McGuckin, D McBride, G O’Kane, C Kielt, K McCloy, J Diver, M Friel, M Lynch, D Mullan, B McGoldrick, E Muldoon, J Kielt, C Gilligan.

We’re off and running. Declan Mullan kicks the opening score to put Derry into an early lead. Derry 0-01 Kildare 0-00

Tomas O’Connor posts a quick riposte for the Lilywhites, twisting and turning before kicking the point off his right. Derry 0-01 Kildare 0-01

Derry have started brightly, showing no signs of a hangover after their six-day turnaround. A lovely passage of movement opens the door for Sean Leo McGoldrick who points, with Declan Mullan following up with his second of the afternoon shortly afterwards. Derry 0-03 Kildare 0-01

Johnny Doyle slots over his first of the day from a free. Derry 0-03 Kildare 0-02

A great point by Kildare corner-forward Robert Kelly under pressure from Declan McBride. All square here, Derry 0-03 Kildare 0-03.

Enda Muldoon puts Derry back in front before Kildare storm back down the pitch, Tomas O’Connor playing Robert Kelly in for the equalising score. Derry 0-04 Kildare 0-04

Johnny Doyle makes it two out of two from frees. Kildare 0-05 Derry 0-04

Mark Lynch squares to Enda Muldoon who fists the ball into the net but it’s chalked off by referee Syl Doyle. Muldoon was marginally inside the square by the looks of things.

A point apiece for James Kielt and Conleth Gilligan put Derry quickly back in front. Derry 0-06 Kildare 0-05

Referee Syl Doyle awards Kildare a rather soft free. Johnny Doyle isn’t too bothered as to why it was awarded – he sticks it over the posts to level matters. Derry 0-06 Kildare 0-06

Kieran McGeeney obviously wasn’t too pleased with how Gary White was dealing with the threat of Sean Leo McGoldrick. The wing-back is hauled off to be replaced by Ollie Lyons.

Hugh McGrillen pushes unopposed on from the full-back line, pointing beautifully to put the Lilywhites back into the lead. Kildare 0-07 Derry 0-06

28 minutes gone, and Declan Mullen picks his third point of the afternoon with a measured kick. Kildare 0-07 Derry 0-07

Oooh, was that the right decision from James Kavanagh? He races towards the Derry goal but, instead of passing to Tomas O’Connor who was in acres of space, he fires over the bar for a point. That has to go down as a half-chance in my book. Kildare 0-08 Derry 0-07

Barry McGoldrick is booked for what looked to be quite a fair challenge on Johnny Doyle. Doyle dusts himself off and does the necessary. Kildare 0-09 Derry 0-07

Joe Diver storms through the middle with a point that might just rally the Derry troops. Kildare 0-09 Derry 0-08

Two excellent scores in quick succession for Kildare to end the half. Morgan O’Flaherty plays in Eamonn Callaghan for the first before James Kavanagh adds another cracking solo score. Kildare 0-11 Derry 0-08

HALF TIME: Kildare 0-11 Derry 0-08

Feel free to send in your thoughts and comments on the first half. I’ll be back in a quick second.

Having heard from the Derry bench at half-time, they appear adamant that Muldoon couldn’t have been inside the square ahead of the ball because it was played in from the side. I’m not 100% sure myself, but surely in very marginal cases such as this, the benefit of the doubt should be given to the attacker, no?

Our man in the middle, Syl Doyle, has previous in this regard – he’s the man who disallowed Graham Geraghty’s goal against Kildare earlier this season.

We’re back underway in Croker. Eoin O’Flaherty fists the first point of the second half over the bar, extending Kildare’s lead to four. Kildare 0-12 Derry 0-08

Conleth Gilligan points from a free to reduce Derry’s deficit to three. Kildare 0-12 Derry 0-09

The Derry back-line are having quite an unpleasant afternoon, and their indiscipline is proving costly. Johnny Doyle points another free – his fifth of the game – to restore Kildare’s four-point margin. Kildare 0-13 Derry 0-09

Gerard O’Kane briefly narrows the gap again, but it’s becoming increasingly futile because Tomas O’Connor and James Kavanagh are having it all their own way down the other end of the pitch. They tack on a point each to open up a five-point gap. Kildare 0-15 Derry 0-10

If you’re John Brennan, surely it’s about time to start thinking of some serious changes. That whole “six days” argument isn’t really going to wash if Derry are dumped out of the Championship in 20 minutes time.

A pair of bad wides for Kildare as Eoin O’Flaherty misses a free and Robert Kelly hooks a point wide from play. They need to open up a bit of a gap here in order to avoid any late jitters. They don’t look to be in any real danger as things stand though.

Barry McGoldrick briefly cuts the deficit to four points, but it’s only a matter of moments before Johnny Doyle slots a point to make it a five-point game with 11 minutes remaining. Kildare 0-16 Derry 0-11

Conleth Gilligan keeps Derry in touch. From the “stating the obvious” department: a goal here would be huge for Derry. Kildare 0-16 Derry 0-12

James Kavanagh keeps Derry at arm’s length with another well-taken score. He’s been impressive today. Kildare 0-17 Derry 0-12

Padraig O’Neill is given absolutely acres of space by the Derry defence and he kicks a wonderful point from distance to extend Kildare’s advantage. They’ve really outplayed Derry here today, kicking more than double the amount of wides and they’re still six points up. Kildare 0-18 Derry 0-12

Conleth Gilligan points another free, but with four minutes plus stoppage time remaining, it’s unlikely to be enough. Kildare 0-18 Derry 0-13

There’ll be one minute of additional time played. Johnny Doyle turns provider, playing in Ronan Sweeney to make it Kildare 0-19 Derry 0-13.

FULL TIME: Kildare 0-19 Derry 0-13

So, that’s that. Kildare’s performance will do nothing to deter those who claim they are the best outside bet of this year’s All-Ireland. They worked tirelessly from start to finish and, although they kicked some sloppy wides, they showed that they are well able to take their points. Kieran McGeeney will be delighted by the performance of Tomas O’Connor and James Kavanagh in particular, who tormented the Derry defence throughout.

Coming off the back of a tough defeat last weekend, Derry played well but simply couldn’t cause Kildare any real problems.

That’s our lot for the moment. Join me for the Cork-Down liveblog in a couple of minutes.