Second-half surge sees Kildare demolish Laois’s Leinster dreams

Kildare 2-20 

Laois 2-15 

LAOIS travelled to Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Sunday afternoon to face Kildare looking to book a place in a Leinster SFC semi-final after a commanding win over Offaly last weekend. Kildare, much like Offaly last week, had suffered relegation from Division 2.

Ben Loakman pointed the game’s opening score from a free and Daragh Galvin replied fisting over at the opposite end. Evan O’Carroll opened his account and Loakman added a second. Kevin Swayne and Darragh Kirwan traded points keeping the sides level.

The home side pushed on and dominated the kickouts which allowed them to take a two-point lead with point from Tommy Gill and Kirwan. Laois then had a blistering 90 second period where Paul Kingston added 1-2 to the board. Kingston raised his first white flag while he won the resulting kickout and charged straight for goal making no mistake in finding the net. He pointed second score a moment later while Eoin Cully replied for the Lilywhites.

Darragh Swords pointed his first and Cully fisted over the bar to bring proceedings level once more. Rob Tyrrell broke down Killian Roche’s kickout and found Conor Heffernan who played in Galvin as Laois raised a second green flag with his first effort was denied by Cian Burke, but Galvin was alert to punch in the rebound.

Kildare found the back of Roche’s net in the following passage of play as Cully hit the crossbar, but Loakman was in the right place at the right time allowing him a simple palm in. The games first orange flag was waved a moment later and it was a lucky one as Kirwan’s shot dropped and bounced straight over the bar.

O’Carroll pointed his second of the contest while Kingston pointed Laois’ first free of the game to conclude their first half scoring. On the brink of half-time, Alex Mohan was punished for fouling Swords in the square which allowed Loakman step up to the spot. His effort rattled the crossbar and after a few tussles between the sides, the hooter soon sounded meaning it was all square at the break, (2-7 to 1-10).

Cully and Gill both added to their tallies to kick Kildare into the lead. Laois were then pulled up for a breach of the three men up rule, but fortunately Brian McLoughlin’s two-point effort dropped into the hands of Roche. Kevin Feely made his presence known and pointed a super score to push his side three points ahead. Cully then followed up and made it four in a row for Kildare in the 48th minute.

Laois struggled to get hands on the ball and Kildare were punishing that, Swords added a second to his name before Paddy O’Sullivan finally got the ball rolling for Laois pointing from play. O’Carroll followed up raising a white flag which narrowed the gap to just three points. Ben McCormack freshly introduced squeezed a point over from a narrow angle while Rioghan Murphy found himself in the face of goal, but Burke denied him giving Laois a 45’, Roche stepped up but his effort drifted wide.

Kildare’s inside forward Eoin Cully had caused problems all day and he soon took his tally to 1-5 while Galvin replied for Laois. McCormack pointed his second while Ronan Coffey fisted over the bar. McCormack added another point to his name before Laois suffered a poor turnover where Colm Moran set up Kirwan to fire past Roche and extend the gap to eight points. McCormack pointed a fourth putting Kildare nine up with seven minutes remaining.

Roche travelled up field to sail over a two-point free while Cian Nolan only minutes after his introduction added his name to the scoresheet reducing the deficit to six. O’Carroll created a goal scoring opportunity, but Brendan Gibbons cleared his effort off the line. Roche pointed the final score of the game from a 45’ which narrowed the Laois defeat to five points as the hooter sounded.

Kildare will go forward and face Westmeath in the semi-final while Laois will now have four weeks to prepare for the Tailteann Cup which is due to commence on the weekend of May 16/17.

SCORERS:

Kildare: Darragh Kirwan 1-4 (1 tp), Ben Loakman 1-2 (0-1f), Eoin Cully 0-5, Ben McCormack 0-4, Darragh Swords and Tommy Gill 0-2 each, Kevin Feely 0-1.

Laois: Paul Kingston 1-3 (0-1f), Daragh Galvin 1-2, Killian Roche (1 tpf, 0-1 45) and Evan O’Carroll 0-3 each, Ronan Coffey, Paddy O’Sullivan, Kevin Swayne and Cian Nolan 0-1 each.

KILDARE: Cian Burke; Brian Byrne, Mark Dempsey, Ryan Burke; James McGrath, Eoin Lawlor, Tommy Gill; Brian McLoughlin, Brendan Gibbons; Darragh Ryan, Darragh Swords, Callum Bolton; Ben Loakman, Darragh Kirwan, Eoin Cully.

Subs: Colm Moran for Lawlor (29-31m, Blood), Kevin Feely for Ryan (ht), Ben McCormack for Loakman (50m), Colm Moran for McLoughlin (56m), Neil Flynn for Bolton (64m), James Harris for McGrath (67m).

LAOIS: Killian Roche (Killeshin); Jack Lacey (St Joseph’s), Trevor Collins (Graiguecullen), Alex Mohan (Portarlington); Kevin Swayne (Portlaoise), Aaron McEvoy (Ballyroan-Abbey), Paddy O'Sullivan (Portarlington); Rob Tyrrell (Courtwood), Conor Heffernan (Killeshin); Ciaran Burke (Crettyard), Ronan Coffey (Portarlington), Brian Byrne (Graiguecullen); Paul Kingston (Arles-Killeen), Daragh Galvin (Portarlington), Evan O'Carroll (Crettyard).

Subs: Ben Dempsey (Portlaoise) for Lacey (29m), Pa Kirwan for McEvoy (ht), Rioghan Murphy (Portarlington) for Byrne (49m), Cian Nolan (Park/Ratheniska) for Tyrrell (64m), Darren Brennan (Portlaoise) for Coffey (67m).

Referee: Conor Lane (Cork)