Goals prove crucial as Laois U-20 footballers bow out of Leinster Championship to the hands of Meath

The Laois U-20 footballers have been knocked out of this year's Leinster Championship after Meath got the better of them in Ashbourne this evening.

Meath 4-8

Laois 1-10

Meath got off to the best possible start as they raised a green flag straight from throw-in. John O'Regan played a long ball in with Meath's Cian Commons missing the ball but it fell perfectly for Jamie Murphy, who placed the ball into the bottom corner of Conor Brown's net. Commons did get his hands on the ball for the next Meath score as the full-forward turned his marker and split the posts.

Laois opened their account after seven minutes courtesy of a Jamie O'Brien free. Jamie Murphy added to his earlier goal with the Meath forward raising a white flag from a placed ball. Cormac Murphy went on a superb run for Laois' second point with the St Joseph's man pointing off his favoured left foot. Meath would soon have their second goal of the first-half with Murphy once again beating Brown in the Laois goal. Murphy's effort took a wicked deflection off Conor Raggett to land in the Laois net.

Kieran Kelly's men got two scores on the trot as Jonah Kelly and Cormac Murphy (free) pointed to leave four points between the teams. Conor Duke pushed Meath further ahead before Laois took full advantage of a slack kick-out from Oisin McDermott with Jamie O'Brien slipping the ball into Jonah Kelly, who's shot flew past McDermott to cut Meath's lead in half.

Jamie O'Brien got his second point of the half from the next kick-out as a Meath foul gave him an easy task of tapping it over the bar. Brian O'Halloran got the final score of the half for Meath as the home side went into the dressing rooms ahead by two, 2-4 to 1-5.

Laois' Cian Nolan got the first score of the second period with Meath's Jamie Murphy replying from play. Laois levelled the game with the next two points as Jack Byrne and a free from Jamie O'Brien left the score at 1-8 to 2-5. Hughie Corcoran (free) and a splendid point from Jack Byrne on the end kept the scores level after 42 minutes. Laois would go ahead for the first time after 46 minutes as Cormac Murphy pointed a free. A mistake from Laois goalkeeper Conor Brown gifted Meath their third goal as his kick-out went straight to Rian McConnell who made no mistake with his finish.

Meath ended the game with another 1-2 as Hughie Corcoran pointed a free while Conor McWeeney scored from play. The latter would soon be shown a red card after a scuffle in midfield which saw the game stopped for a few minutes. Laois would also end the game with 14 men as Cormac Murphy was shown a black card. Meath got a fourth goal with the last kick of the game as Eamon Armstrong raised a green flag. Meath winning out 4-8 to 1-10.