Brian Flanagan says even he was starting to wonder if the Croke Park curse was a real thing for Kildare.
The Lilywhites left it late to see off Fermanagh and secure a July 12 Tailteann Cup final clash with Limerick.
Sub Brian McLoughlin changed the game when he came on early in the second-half, blasting five crucial points.
And James McGrath set the seal on a slightly flattering seven-point win with his third goal in a row late on.
The scores were tied at 0-8 apiece after 55 minutes and no Kildare fan in the 13,960 crowd was taking anything for granted at that stage.
The Leinster semi-finalists had lost their previous five games at Croke Park – and have a poor record generally there over the last 15 years.
They created 32 scoring chances overall but wasted four goal opportunities and drilled 14 wides – leaving Flanagan wondering if another Croker choker was occurring.
He said: “I said after the quarter-final win that every team has their challenges and, look, there was a bit made out of our recent history in Croke Park.
“The reality is you don’t talk about those things when you’re developing a new group because in many ways it’s irrelevant to us.
“But as that game went on, 15 or 20 minutes in, you were thinking, ‘Maybe there is something in this, I don’t know’.
“So winning became even more important than at that point, so you could throw the shackles off in the future when we come back here.”
Kildare will be favourites for next month’s final and will receive a golden ticket to the 2026 All-Ireland SFC if they can win again at Croker.
Flanagan will have a selection headache because McLoughlin, who struck 1-2 at Croke Park in the 2018 All-Ireland U-20 final win, will feel he has done enough to start.
McLoughlin was named Man of the Match despite being on the pitch less than 30 minutes.
Attacker Neil Flynn is back in the squad too while versatile half-forward Callum Bolton should be fit again and Jimmy Hyland could yet make it too after calf/Achilles trouble.
Flanagan said: “When Brian is in his stride, he’s a very good striker of the ball. That’s what we were bringing him in to do.
“We spoke a lot during the week about our bench having an impact, not just coming in to see a game out but actually impacting the game and he certainly did that.”
It was a forgettable first 50 minutes or so with Kildare 0-7 to 0-6 up at half-time.
Spells of torrential rain left both sets of players soaked and contributed to an error prone spectacle.
That explained a lot of the wides and handling errors, while neither side really got their kicking games going.
Colm Dalton, Kevin Feely, Tommy Gill and Daniel Flynn all failed to convert decent Kildare goal chances – leaving Flanagan fearing the worst.
But McLoughlin was a game changer when he came on and the goal Fermanagh needed in response never arrived.
Fermanagh manager Kieran Donnelly said: “Conditions were hard on the players. With us being a mobile team and a young team, it didn’t help us on a day like that. We haven’t played in those conditions all year.”
Kildare 1-13
Fermanagh 0-9
Kildare: C Burke; H O’Neill, M Dempsey, K Flynn; B Byrne, D Hyland, J McGrath 1-0; K Feely 0-2, tp, B Gibbons; T Gill, A Beirne 0-1, C Dalton 0-2; R Sinkey, D Kirwan 0-1, D Flynn 0-2.
Subs: B McLoughlin 0-5, 1tp for Sinkey 44, J McKevitt for K Flynn 55, N Kelly for Kirwan 63, A Masterson for Gibbons 66.
Fermanagh: S McNally; L Flanagan, L Cullen, O Smyth; S McGullion, D McCusker 0-1, J Cassidy; J McDade 0-1, D McGurn 0-1; F O’Brien, R Lyons 0-1, R McCaffrey; Josh Largo Ellis 0-2, G Jones, C Love 0-2.
Subs: S Cassidy 0-1 for Jones h/t, C McGee for McCaffrey 50, A Kelm for McCusker 56, Jack Largo Ellis for O’Brien 66, C Cullen for McGullion 68.
Ref: K Eannetta (Tyrone).
