‘Local derby, and it’s always nice to beat the neighbours’ - Kelly 

THE Laois U/20 footballers put in a superb second half display on Wednesday evening against Carlow as they came from nine points down to seal their place in the semi-finals of the Andrew Corden Cup.

Speaking after the game, Laois manager Kieran Kelly highlighted that second-half performance and also spoke about how important it is to win the breaking ball. Kelly, who is from Ballylinan, also joked that derby wins over Carlow are sweet considering the geography of where he’s from.

“A game of two halves. When Dylan (Murphy) got the goal, we were three points up, and then in the blink of an eye, we were four points down. Breaks are so important nowadays, and Carlow got the rub of the green in the first half.

“We kind of dominated the second half, which gives you go-forward ball, and we got our scores from that today. Unfortunately, we didn't do that against Meath, but we did take our scores tonight, which is good. Local derby, and it’s always nice to beat the neighbours, especially down our way,” he said.

Laois had led by six points as the game ticked into injury-time and were made to sweat late on as Carlow got a fortunate goal that went in off a Laois player to leave just a goal between them. Carlow substitute Oran O'Boyle missed a chance to level with the last kick, but Kelly confirmed Laois would have still gone through.

“Could have, but I think we would have actually gone through on score difference in the end. But look, that’s local derbies for you, anything can happen. We pulled away, we were six points up. They got a goal, kind of an OG off Dan Boland, I think, and they could have snuck another one right at the end, thank God they didn't, and that's football,” Kelly said.

Laois’s win sees them into the semi-finals of the Andrew Corden Cup and Kelly says they’ll be going full tilt to try and win the competition now that they’re in it.

“100%. We're in a semi-final now, so we're all in. Last year, I suppose, when we played Westmeath, we said if we're going into it, we're going all in. 100%, we’re in it now until the end,” he said.

Reflecting on the previous game against Meath, where the scoreline didn’t reflect the nature of the contest, Kelly commended his players for showing character to get over the line against Carlow.

“Just couldn't score, yeah. Looking back at the video, we missed five really good goal-scoring opportunities. They took theirs, we didn't. The scoreline did not reflect the match overall. They are a fantastic group of lads, so they are. Obviously, we wanted to be in the knockout stages of the A, but unfortunately, the first 20 minutes against Longford probably cost us. They've shown character, and look, we’ll just drive on from here,” he concluded.