Laois footballers’ season comes to an end as they crash out of the Tailteann Cup at the hands of Down

Down 2-23 

Laois 0-15 

LAOIS hosted Down in Laois Hire O’Moore Park on Saturday afternoon under conditions which could be described as perfect weather for football. And Down were the happier at the final whistle after booking their place in the Tailteann Cup semi-finals with an impressive victory.

After a closely contested opening, the Mourne men took control with a dominant spell before the break to establish a healthy advantage.

Laois battled hard throughout, but Down maintained their grip on proceedings in the second half to secure a deserved win and keep their Tailteann Cup ambitions firmly on track. Down have been Laois’ bogie team for the last number of years and history repeated itself as they have successfully knocked Laois out of the championship for the third time in the past four years.

The visitor’s got the scoring underway when Odhran Murdock raised the first white flag of the game after just two minutes. Evan O’Carroll replied from a placed ball when Paddy O’Sullivan was fouled just outside the square. Laois struggled for the following ten-minute period where Down added 1-5 to the board.

Eamon Brown pointed his first before Murdock pointed from outside the arc to push their lead to three. Ryan Magill found himself through on goal and Matthew Byron pulled off a fabulous save, but Jack Lacey was coming at pace and kicked the ball across the line. Miceal Rooney went on to point two in a row giving the Mourne men an eight-point lead.

Pa Kirwan stepped up and ended Downs scoring spree, but it didn’t last long as Ronan Burns was summoned to kick a two-point free which he sailed over the black spot. Brown followed up pointing from a placed ball. Kirwan raised the games second orange flag while O’Carroll pointed after Ciaran Burke fed him a super ball.

Burns was called upon once more and fired a two-point free between the posts while Callum Rogers added his name to the scoresheet. Kirwan added another point to his name and Kevin Swayne pointed to narrow the gap to eight points.

Brown added a second free while Murdock took his tally to four. Swayne and O’Carroll both raised white flags but Caolan Mooney replied up the other end to make it double scores. The half ended with O’Carroll (free) and Ruairi McCormack trading scores seeing Down take a healthy nine-point lead to their dressing rooms, (1-16 to 0-10).

Brown opened the half by firing over Down’s second two-pointer from play. Laois looked destined to nail the back of the net when Paul Kingston pulled off an impressive dispossession and set up Burke who was unfortunate to drill the ball wide. Conor Heffernan and Brown traded scores while O’Carroll kicked his third free before Brown raised another white flag.

Byron travelled up the field and slot over a two-point free while Brown added a further two points to his name. Pat Havern much to the delight of the Down crowd, sprung from the bench and pushed his side even further ahead. O’Carroll pointed Laois’ final score of the game and took his tally to six when he converted a free but Down put the cherry on top when they travelled up field and Daniel Guinness fired past Byron giving them a 14-point lead.

The Laois footballers will now return to their clubs where league semifinals await.

SCORERS:

Down: Eamon Brown 0-9 (1tp, 0-2fs), Ronan Burns (2tpfs) and Odhran Murdock (1tp) 0-4 each, Miceál Rooney 0-2, Daniel Guinness and Jack Lacey (own goal) 1-0 each, Callum Rogers, Caolan Mooney, Ruairi McCormack and Pat Havern 0-1 each.

Laois: Evan O’Carroll 0-6 (0-4fs), Pa Kirwan 0-4 (1tp), Matthew Byron (1tpf) and Kevin Swayne 0-2 each, Conor Heffernan 0-1.

LAOIS: Matthew Byron (Courtwood); Alex Mohan (Portarlington), Trevor Collins (Graiguecullen), Jack Lacey (St Joseph’s); Paddy O’Sullivan (Portarlington), Simon Fingleton (Park/Ratheniska), Aaron McEvoy (Ballyroan Abbey); Conor Heffernan (Killeshin), Rob Tyrrell (Courtwood); Kevin Swayne (Portlaoise, Ronan Coffey (Portarlington), Pa Kirwan (Emo); Ciaran Burke (Crettyard), Daragh Galvin (Portarlington), Evan O’Carroll (Crettyard).

Subs: Paul Kingston (Arles Killeen) for Galvin (ht), Niall Corbet (Clonaslee/St Manman’s) for Coffey (49m), Cian Nolan (Park/Ratheniska) for Burke (54m), Brian Byrne (Graiguecullen) for McEvoy (54m), Killian Byrne (Ballyroan Abbey) for Tyrrell (59m).

DOWN: Ronan Burns; Peter Fegan, Pierce Laverty, Patrick Brooks; Callum Rogers, Shane Annett, Ryan Magill; Ryan McEvoy, Odhran Murdock; Daniel Guinness, Ceilum Doherty, Miceál Rooney; Caolan Mooney, Ruairi O’Hare, Eamon Brown.

Subs: Ruairi McCormack for Mooney (30m), Pat Havern for O’Hare (54m), Patrick McCarthy for Brooks (58m), Ross Carr for Rogers (59m), Finn McElroy for Murdock (62m), Tom Close for Magill (63m, concussion).

Referee: Kieran Eannetta (Tyrone).