McNulty is well aware of the challenge facing his side

THE Laois senior footballers were beaten for the third time in this year’s Division 3 campaign as they left Enniskillen with a two-point defeat to Fermanagh on Saturday evening.

That result, combined with the other results in Division 3 on Sunday, means that unless Laois are hammered by Down, Limerick score heavily against Fermanagh and Sligo beat Clare, Laois will remain a Division 3 team for 2027. There are a lot of ifs, buts and maybes involved, but if Laois get any sort of result against Down they’ll definitely stay up and won’t have to worry about other results.

Speaking after the game in Enniskillen, Laois manager Justin McNulty gave full credit to the victors as they came into the game bottom of the league and will play in Division 4 in 2027. McNulty also pointed to the fact that Laois travelled up on the same day and, with a 6pm throw-in, he felt that was a big reason behind their sluggish start.

“Credit to Fermanagh, languishing at the bottom of the table with no points, and they came out and put it up to us and showed more fight over the 75, 80 minutes probably. We didn't manage the journey that well because we were very flat for the first 15-20 minutes, even though we got a good start. We didn't fire in the first half, got ourselves in a very difficult position, half-time a man down, looked like a really uphill battle, but credit to the fellas that they dug in. They did assemble a fight back in the second half, and we got ourselves in a position to win the game. A little bit more composure, and we could have come away with points, but on the whole, we might have just been undeserving on the evening because our performance was subpar,” McNulty said.

Fermanagh’s second goal pretty much summed up Laois’ first-half performance, as a long ball in from Darragh McGurn saw full-back Luke Flanagan standing in an acre of space in the small square. When the ball dropped to him, he probably couldn’t believe his luck as he tucked it past Killian Roche.

“We were waiting for things to happen as opposed to taking control, and they dominated the kick-out. That goal was poor and something that we wouldn't expect that would be the norm. It’s something we’ll look at, and we’ll try to figure out how we can improve it. Obviously, the players are unhappy, us as a coaching team and me as the manager, we're all unhappy with this, we don't think we gave a performance that we can be proud of. We expect to go out and deliver a battling performance from the first minute through the 75th, 80th minute and that didn't happen tonight, and when that doesn't happen, you can't expect to get results,” he said.

One major area of the game where Laois underperformed was on the kick-outs as time and time again, Fermanagh won the restarts with clean catches. Under the new rules, that can nearly win you the game as it gives teams a platform to keep attacking.

“It's a huge element of the game. They dominated the kick-outs and we didn't disrupt theirs successfully enough. When you're a man down, that becomes an even harder task, but they bullied us around the middle of the park tonight. We recognise that and we’re embarrassed by that fact, and I know the boys don't accept that as being what they expect or what they think is okay. They're going to be very, very determined to rectify that,” McNulty admitted.

Laois’ final game of the division sees them travel to Newry to face Down. The Mournemen have won all six games to date and are sitting pretty at the top of the table. McNulty is well aware of the challenge facing his side, but knows that his side will want to put in a performance up there to make up for their lacklustre showing on Saturday against Fermanagh.

“Down are demolishing all before them in this division. We are under no illusions as to how tough and how massive a challenge that will be. Down are just cleaning the boards with all before them. They're a good side, and they’re probably not a Division 3 team; they know that, and I know that, but we could be going there looking for points.

“That's a tall order, and it's a tough, tough task, a really challenging journey for us next Sunday, but one we're looking forward to and one we hope we can restore some pride because we can't be proud of that performance tonight,” he concluded.