Laois minor hurlers beaten by Dublin at quarter-final stage of Leinster Championship

Laois are out of the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship after a six-point defeat to Dublin on Monday night. Laois were on top for most of the first half but allowed Dublin to take hold of the game before the break and never managed to wrestle back control.

It had been a tough path to the quarter-final for Laois, losing heavily in Rounds 1 and 2 against Kilkenny and Galway. Damien Carter’s side regrouped for their decider with Antrim and scored four goals on their way to a vital win over the Ulster team, including an outstanding hat-trick from Justin Duggan.

Dublin 1-20

Laois 0-17

Leinster Minor Hurling Championship Quarter-Final

Laois proved too strong for Kildare in the preliminary quarter final, coming out on the right side of a six-goal thriller, and kept faith with the same starting fifteen for this one.

The visitors opened the scoring with a David Purcell free but Laois were level through Caelum O’Brien, all before the clocked ticked into the second minute. Eoghan Murphy added a pair of frees but Laois were then guilty of three wides in as many minutes.

Cormac Byrne almost found the net in the 12th minute but struck the butt of the post after a sublime ball in from Justin Duggan. Duggan and Murphy both pointed shortly afterwards to leave Laois three points up after quarter of an hour.

Dublin were back on terms against the run of play in the 18thminute when Callum Graham tapped the ball into Ethan Lafferty’s net. Laois had a chance to strike back immediately when they won a penalty but Murphy drove his shot to the left and wide.

Dublin added six points to Laois’s four for a half time lead of 1-8 to 0-9.

Murphy and Purcell traded points back and forth for the first ten minutes of the second half before the two number nines, Daniel O’Kelly and Portarlington’s Jordan Downey traded scores.

Normal service resumed for Murphy and Purcell as Dublin maintained their two-point cushion going in to the final ten minutes. Both men registered a final tally of eleven points off nine frees.

The sides had been shown five yellow cards apiece when referee, Gearoid McGrath finally produced a red, correctly giving O’Kelly his marching orders. But even a man down, Dublin outscored Laois by six points to two in the final period.

The hosts were shown not one but two red cards of their own deep into injury time; Ruaidhrí Kavanagh received his second yellow, while Ryan Peters got a straight red seconds later.

Dublin will join Galway, Wexford and Kilkenny in the semi-finals.