Comprehensive victory sees Laois past Wexford to secure quarter final place

Leinster Senior Football Championship Rd 1 

 Laois 2-21 

Wexford 2-11

LAOIS made the journey to the sunny southeast on Saturday evening to face Wexford in Chadwick’s Wexford pack in the opening round of the Leinster Senior Football Championship and came away with a well-deserved 10-point win.

The sides are well acquainted after facing each other many times in the Division 4 league over the years. Wexford gained promotion to Division 3 for 2026 so they will be popular opponents once again. The Yellow Bellies are also the only team to perform a clean sweep, seven out of seven, in the league phase across all divisions for 2025. Although they missed out on taking home the silverware in the final when they fell to Limerick.

The O’Moore men got off to a flying start, registering 1-1 in the first three minutes. Kevin Swayne danced through the defence and fisted the ball over the bar while a pass over the Wexford defence landed into the arms of Paddy O’Sullivan who made no mistake in rattling the top right corner of net.

Wexford responded through Kevin O’Grady who hand passed over the bar before Laois took off on a scoring spree where they added six points to the board. The first came courtesy of Brian Byne followed soon by Mark Barry. Ronan Coffey pulled off his signature dummy solo to point his first of the game while Pa Kirwan pointed moments later. Seamus Lacey punched down the resulting kickout allowing Coffey to steady up and kick a super two-pointer to push Laois nine points ahead.

The home side found their rhythm for the next 10 minutes where they pointed four on the trot, Mark Rossiter pointed the first free of the contest while O’Grady volleyed the ball off the ground and over the bar. Rossiter split the posts for his second which was quickly followed by Niall Hughes pointing after winning the kickout. Laois responded in an admirable manner as they broke up the field with Barry pointing for two but the first of Darragh Brooks reduced that to one. Having put the first goal away, O’Sullivan squared a pass across to Daniel O’Reilly who tidily slotted the ball under the body of Brooks in the Wexford nets.

The sides traded scores as Rossiter pointed from a placed ball for Wexford and Killian Roche slot a 45’ over the black spot. Laois had a mighty finish to the opening 35 minutes as Barry pointed a free with Coffey opting for a two-point free after O’Sullivan was prevented from taking a solo and go. Laois advanced to the dressing room at the break with a very healthy lead of 12 points as the scoreboard sat at triple scores, (2-12 to 0-6).

The second half was not quite as entertaining as the first as Laois seemed to retain a lot more possession knowing they had built up enough scores in the first. Rossiter opened the scoring with his fourth point for Wexford while Coffey added his sixth for Laois, followed only a minute later by Barry putting his right foot to work. The following four scores were traded between the sides with Trevor Collins and Kirwan pointing for Laois while the home scores came from Eoin Porter and a Rossiter free.

The Yellow Bellies began to press high and were rewarded as they found the back of Roche’s net through a shot drilled low from Michael Kinsella. Kirwan added a third point to his tally as Barry pointed from play also. Wexford raised a second green flag as a shot from Sean Ryan landed in the net which was quickly followed by a two-point free from their goalkeeper Darragh Brooks narrowing the gap to seven. There was no panic from the Laois men who held their nerves for the remaining five minutes despite Wexford going for goal every chance they got. Barry pointed from a free and from play taking his total to seven whilst Jonah Kelly earned himself a point off the bench as his fisted over the bar.

Laois leave Wexford Park with a 10-point win and look ahead to the weekend where they will face Louth in Cedril Conleth’s Park in Newbridge on Sunday afternoon.

SCORERS:

Laois: Mark Barry 0-7 (0-2fs), Ronan Coffey 0-6 (1 2-pointer, 1 2-pointer free), Patrick O’Sullivan and Daniel O’Reilly 1-0 each, Pa Kirwan 0-3, Brian Byrne, Trevor Collins, Killian Roche (45), Kevin Swayne and Jonah Kelly 0-1 each.

Wexford: Mark Rossiter 0-5 (0-3fs), Michael Kinsella and Sean Ryan 1-0 each, Darragh Brooks (2-pointer free) and Kevin O’Grady 0-2 each, Eoin Porter and Niall Hughes 0-1 each.

LAOIS: Killian Roche (Killeshin); Ben Dempsey (Portlaoise), Trevor Collins (Graiguecullen), Paddy O'Sullivan (Portarlington); Pa Kirwan (Emo), Simon Fingleton (Park-Ratheniska), Liam Knowles (Stradbally); Conor Heffernan (Killeshin), Seamus Lacey (Ballylinan); Kevin Swayne (Portlaoise), Mark Barry (O'Dempsey's), Daniel O'Reilly (Graiguecullen); Niall Corbet (Clonaslee St Manman's), Brian Byrne (Captain) (Graiguecullen), Ronan Coffey (Portarlington).

Subs: Damon Larkin (Portlaoise) for O'Sullivan (55m), Benny Carroll (Portlaoise) for Coffey (61m), Josh Hogan (Portlaoise) for Fingleton (68m), Fionn Holland (O'Dempsey's) for O'Reilly (71m), Jonah Kelly (Crettyard) for Byrne (72m).

WEXFORD: Darragh Brooks; Michael Furlong, Gavin Sheehan, Liam O’Connor; Eoin Porter, Eoghan Nolan, Pairic Hughes; Liam Coleman, Niall Hughes; Tom Byrne, Philip Dempsey, Mark Rossiter; Kevin O’Grady, Graeme Cullen, Conor Carty.

Subs: Dylan Furlong for Nolan (ht), Michael Kinsella for Carty (ht), Robbie Brooks for Byrne (56m), Cathal Walsh for Dempsey (56m), Sean Ryan for Cullen (56m).

Referee: David Murnane (Cork)