Laois Minor Camogie team beaten by The Rossies

The Laois Minor camogie team began their All-Ireland campaign with a shock home-defeat at the hands of Roscommon on Sunday afternoon. There was an air of expectation around this fixture, but Hazel Kelly and Roscommon had other ideas.

It was a depleted Laois team that took the field in Rathdowney with the U-16 'A' team in Colt playing Dublin and the U-16 'B' team playing Kilkenny in Ballacolla, all at the same time. That was a lot of pressure to put on a county trying to build its reputation in the sport.

Roscommon 2-8

Laois 1-8 

Katelyn Shore opened the scoring for the hosts inside 5 minutes before Aoife Daly added a second with a lovely score shortly after.

There was a good reaction from Roscommon who got their first score in the 9th minute when Saoirse Gacquin charged through the Laois defence and sent the ball into Cesira Healy's net. Kelly was already looking good in broken play and slotted a free five minutes later from wide on the right.

Eimear Hassett and Gacquin traded scores before Susie Delaney bagged the first of her five frees in the 18th minute. Roscommon were playing really well at this stage and tagged on two good scores from Lily Murray and Michaela Lohan.

Delaney and Lohan swapped scores towards the end as Roscommon finished the half with a 1-5 to 0-5 lead.

Laois management would have stressed the importance of starting the second half well, but Roscommon hit the ground running, scoring their second goal with a minute of the throw in. The hosts battled back with two well-struck frees from Delaney, but Roscommon kept plugging away and responded with a great score from Erin McDermott.

Delaney and Kelly traded frees before the Portlaoise forward suffered a nasty injury, taking a heavy strike of the hurl before being replaced by Louise Bergin.

Hassett took over dead-ball duties and fired the sliotar into the bottom corner of the Roscommon net on her first attempt, bringing Laois to within two points with five minutes still to play.

But the visitors camped inside the Laois half, running out the clock and even adding on one last free from Kelly to seal the game. 

Laois were disjointed, especially in the first half. The players looked a lot more settled in the second half, but it was all a little on the slow side. Roscommon found plenty of space in the Laois back-line, while the hosts could find no penetration through the yellow blanket defence.

There were plenty of positives from an individual perspective as quite a few Laois players stood out. Shore and Lucy Conroy played well in midfield; Delaney was confident on frees; and the Camross pair of Daly and Ella Cuddy linked up nicely on numerous occasions.

Niall Cuddy's team travel to Kildare next week for Round 2 hoping for a much smoother performance.

SCORERS - Roscommon: Saoirse Gacquin 1-1, Hazel Kelly 0-3 (3f), Siofra Hession 1-0, Michaela Loahn 0-2, Lily Murray and Erin McDermott 0-1 each. Laois: Susie Delaney 0-5 (5f), Eimear Hasett 1-1, Katelyn Shore and Aoife Daly 0-1 each.

LAOIS: Cesira Healy (St Brigid's); Ava Guilfoyle (Camross), Annabelle Ryan (Camross) Aoibheann Dalton (Naomh Éamann); Ella Cuddy (Camross), Amy Lacey (The Harps), Aoife Gee (The Harps); Katelyn Shore (Naomh Éamann), Lucy Conroy (O'Moore's); Susie Delaney (Portlaoise), Tara Lowry (Camross), Caoimhe Cuddy (Naomh Éamann); Maeve Hennessy (Clough Ballacolla), Aoife Daly (Camross), Eimear Hassett (St Brigid's).

Subs: Sinéad Slevin (Banríon Gaels) for Hennessy (25 mins), Eva Carroll (St Brigid's) for Cuddy (44 mins), Leah Rice (Camross) for Slevin (48 mins), Louise Bergin (Camross) for Delaney (inj) (55 mins).

ROSCOMMON: Andrea Fallon; Ruth Gannon, Shauna McDermott, Anna Hussey; Grace Geraghty, Mairéad Lohan, Aideen O'Brien; Lily Murray, Erin McDermott; Alannah Sutton, Hannah Murray, Hazel Kelly; Michaela Lohan, Siofra Hession, Saoirse Gacquin.

Subs: Tara O'Brien for Lohan (45 mins)