“The better team won on the night” - Laois boss Billy Sheehan

The Laois Senior footballers suffered their first defeat of this year’s Allianz Football League Division 4 at the hands of Wicklow.

The result still leaves Laois top of the table with four games played. Laois would have been looking to get one over on Wicklow as The Garden County knocked Laois out of the Leinster Championship last year.

Laois manager, Billy Sheehan felt the result on the night was right and that Laois didn’t create enough opportunities to get themselves a result from the game.

Sheehan spoke to the media after the game to give his thoughts on the contest.

“The better team won on the night. We didn’t perform in a number of areas, we put ourselves in a good position in the first-half, think we were five or six points up, we let them back into the game just before half-time. As well as that they missed a few frees, but overall the better team got out tonight and got the result.”

Laois were dealt a massive blow with Portarlington’s Colm Murphy going off with a suspected hamstring injury early in the first-half.

“Since he has come back, he picked up an early hamstring injury and it could be a reoccurrence of the same injury there early doors. Colm’s a great lad and a big loss to the team and a big loss to us tonight.”

Laois were getting their hands on a lot of ball, however the end product of all their possession wasn’t very fruitful as Wicklow created enough opportunities that they could afford to miss a few.

“Again, it was like earlier on in the year, they shot for a point, it went short and they managed to get a goal out of it. I’m not going to say it’s not more than they deserved because they did have frees which Mark Jackson usually puts over the bar and he missed a few of them. So going in at half-time, we might have controlled possession, but opportunity wise, we didn’t create as much as we would have hoped.”

Laois were ahead by a point at half-time and started the second-half with two quick scores to gain momentum, but Wicklow pegged them back with six scores without reply in a 17 minute period.

“We got scores and we put ourselves ahead by a couple of points, we put ourselves into a good position. I think they got four points from frees in a row and that put them in control of the game. We came back, we had two scoring opportunities and we missed the two of them. Then, Wicklow just tagged on at the end.”

With this being Laois’ first defeat of the campaign, the O’Moore men still remain top of the standings due to their solid start in the league. Sheehan knows that every game is now must win, in order to gain promotion.

“We were always going to have to win every game. We only speak about the next team, all we’re worried about now is Waterford. Everyone was there talking about Laois and Leitrim being promoted after the first game. It’s another three games, anyone can go up, anything can happen. There’s going to be bumps in the road and a big bump for us tonight. Let’s see how we react to it going forward.”

Laois gave league debuts to both Damon Larkin and Padraig Kirwan as both players had missed the first three games of the league with hamstring injuries. Kevin Swayne started his second consecutive game alongside Kieran Lillis in midfield while Emo’s Sean Greene has settled himself into the number 2 jersey.

“I think that was Padraig (Kirwan) and Damon’s (Larkin) first National League exposure, Damon especially, he’s coming back, another young lad. Kevin Swayne, another game midfield. Sean Greene another game. There’s a big transition there and these lads are doing very well and they just need experience at this level in order to produce the goods.”

Wicklow inflict first defeat of Laois’ league campaign

Laois have another home game to look forward to as they face the challenge of Waterford in Laois Hire O’Moore Park on Saturday evening.