A trend in the Dublin-Kildare encounters of the 1990s was the poor quality of many of the games. Describing this match Irish Times Gaelic Games correspondent Sean Moran wrote: "The lack or urgency on the pitch was compounded by the loosest marking imaginable and a plague of misdirected kicks and passes amid sundry other errors."

It was Tom Carr's first championship game as Dublin manager and he must have feared the worst for long periods of the match. Fortunately for Dublin, Kildare were equally slipshod. They could have had two goals in the early exchanges, the first when Dermot Earley's fisted effort was disallowed for an infringement in the square; the second when Willie McCreery's attempted chip drifted hopelessly wide.

Jim Gavin scored the match-saving point for Dublin in the 64th minute but they had to survive a late scare when only an interception by Keith Barr close to his own goal prevented a decisive score for Kildare.

Dublin: D Byrne; P Moran, P Christie, B Barnes; P Curran, K Barr, D Harrington (0-1); B Stynes (0-1), P Bealin; C Whelan, D Farrell (0-1), I Roberston; J Gavin (0-2, one free), D Darcy (0-4, three frees), J Sherlock (0-1). Subs: M Deegan for Barnes (40 mins); R Boyle for Whelan (50 mins); E Heery for Bealin (66 mins).

Kildare: C Byrne; B Lacey, D Dalton, K Doyle; J Finn, G Ryan (capt), A Rainbow; N Buckley (0-2, one free), W McCreery; E McCormack (0-2), D Kerrigan, D Earley; M Lynch, K O'Dwyer (0-2), P Gravin (0-4, four frees). Subs: R Quinn for Dalton (37 mins); B Murphy for O'Dwyer (54 mins).

Referee: B White (Wexford).