Laois footballers get off to the perfect start in U-20 Championship

The Laois U-20 footballers got their Leinster Championship campaign underway on Tuesday night with a narrow win over Carlow in Netwatch Cullen Park.

The weather certainly did not lend itself to a night of high-quality football, but the crowd in Carlow were at least rewarded for their trip with a close game that went down to the wire. 

Laois 1-12

Carlow 1-10

Eirgrid U-20 Football Leinster Championship Group 1 Round 1

The hosts started the brighter, going two points up after seven minutes. Oisin Hooney got Laois off the mark with a well-worked score before Eoghan Byrne raised a green flag for Carlow with a great finish into the bottom corner.

The next ten minutes were all Laois. Shane Cormican brought down David Costello inside the square for an early penalty, which the Emo forward stood up to take himself, sending the keeper the wrong way. 

There were another four scores without reply, including frees from Costello and Conor Kelly, a 45 from goalkeeper, Conor Brown, and a lovely strike from distance from Shaun Fitzpatrick. Laois were beginning to look comfortable, but the hosts came back at them towards the end of the half. 

Fitzpatrick slotted two great kicks before the whistle to leave Laois up by three points at half time. 1-7 to 1-4. The Ballyroan-Abbey forward kicked Laois’s first point of the second half as well, but Carlow had already scored twice. 

Colin Dunne came in at corner forward for the last 25 minutes and gave Laois an extra zip. The Arles-Killeen man scored three of his team’s final four points as Laois won by two points after a back-and-forth second half. 

Following Laois’s results in the Kerins Cup earlier in the year, the game was much more competitive than many would have expected. Afterwards, however, Laois manager Tom Byrne saw the positives.

“Coming down here on a wet and windy night and taking two points away in a league-type position in the championship – we’ll take it,” he said. “It was a tight game but we probably learned more from that than if we won well, so there’s plenty to look at when we go back training again on Friday night.”

Laois are alongside Carlow, Meath and Longford in Group A of the Leinster Championship and welcome Longford to MW Hire O'Moore Park next Tuesday night.

SCORERS – Laois: Shaun Fitzpatrick 0-4, David Costello 1-1 (1-0 penalty, 0-1 free), Colin Dunne 0-3 (one free), Oisin Hooney 0-2, Conor Kelly 0-1 (free), Conor Brown 0-1 (mark). Carlow: Eoghan Byrne 1-2, Bryan McMahon 0-4 (four frees), Evan Corr 0-2, Cathal Healy and Kieran Nolan 0-1 each. 

LAOIS: Conor Brown (Portlaoise); Jake Darcy (Annanough), Ben Dempsey (Portlaoise), Sean McGrath (Graiguecullen); Conor McWey (Ballyroan-Abbey), Simon Fingleton (Park-Ratheniska), Darragh Slevin (Portarlington); Ben Reddin (Portlaoise), Conor Heffernan (Killeshin); Josh Hogan (Portlaoise), Oisin Hooney (St Joseph’s), Shaun Fitzpatrick (Ballyroan-Abbey); David Costello (Emo), Jack Byrne (Graiguecullen), Conor Kelly (Graiguecullen). 

Subs: John Brennan (Crettyard) for Hogan (HT), Stephen Lennon (O’Dempsey’s) for Darcy and Colin Dunne (Arles-Killeen) for Kelly (both 37 mins), Jonah Kelly (Crettyard) for Byrne (51 mins), Tom Fennelly (Emo) for Reddin (55 mins). 

CARLOW: Ben McCarron; James Whelan, Alex Delaney, Luke Coleman; Cathal Healy, Evan Corr, Jack Deacy; Dara Curran, John Phiri; Kieran Nolan, Shane Cormican, Eoghan Byrne; Tom Behan, Bryan McMahon, Joshua Egan. 

Subs: Liam Gavin for Nolan (48 mins), Cillian McGrath for Healy (58 mins), Conor O’Neill for Egan (61 mins).

Referee: Darragh Byrne (Wicklow)