Remember When (2007): Point lost for Laois footballers as Derry leave it late

*This article was published in The Leinster Express on March 28, 2007

Laois 1-11

Derry 1-11

Allianz National Football League Division 1B

IT MIGHT be only when the group stages of this year's league are concluded that Laois will look back and see this hugely entertaining game with Derry as a point dropped instead of a point gained.

Going into Celtic Park last Sunday a win in Derry (surely the furthest place that Laois will ever have to go for a football match) would constitute a serious achievement. Away wins in the league - especially in this year's ultra-competitive version - are a rarity but when everything is considered the two points on offer should have come back down the country with Laois on Sunday evening.

To get such a brilliant start (they were seven points up after 16 minutes) and not finish off the job was disappointing but the share of the points means that Division IB is going to have a frantic two-week conclusion. It's hard to imagine it could be any tighter and at this stage you would nearly need to be an advanced mathematician to figure out all the various permutations.

In the end it took a brilliant, long-range point from Conleth Gilligan a minute into injury time to rescue Deny. Laois had a chance a minute later when Brian McCormack went for one of his trademark outside-of-the-boot efforts into the wind but he didn't connect properly and with it went the last chance of the day.

In the preceding five minutes there had been a huge amount of action and, of course, the game's obligatory talking point. With Derry leading by a point with three minutes remaining Ross Munnelly, as he had done all afternoon, twisted his marker Ruairi Murray into knots before launching an extremely high shot towards the Deny goals.

The umpire hesitantly went to wave the point but referee Jimmy White made the hard call and over-ruled him. Liam Reams was adamant afterwards that it had been over the bar and so were county board officials who were sitting In the perfect position behind the goals.

In any case Laois rallied well from that decision and, from the next attack, Peter O'Leary showed off his explosive acceleration to take a pass from Darren Rooney, burst through the centre and drive over the equalising point.

After that Derry full-back Kevin McCloy made a fine block on Barry Brennan when a goal was an option and a point seemed a certainty but Laois took the lead when Paddy Bradley's late effort dropped short and the ball was moved brilliantly down the field for Padraig McMahon to follow a similar line to O'Leary to put the visitors ahead.

Unfortunately for Laois that lead didn't last too long and Bradley got out ahead of Joe Higgins one last time to feed Gilligan for a tremendous levelling score.

After McCormack’s late effort went wide, the teams eventually caught their breath after what really was an enthralling second half.

Laois played mesmerising football in the opening quarter, without doubt their best period of league play under Liam Kearns. Crucially, though, they couldn’t sustain that level of intensity and they couldn't build on the 1-4 to 0-0 lead that they had carved out for themselves by the 16th minute.

At that stage, some of Kearns’ philosophies were beginning to show and in fairness to all concerned what was on display in the early stages was impressive. Some of the long balls into the likes of Munnelly, Paul Lawlor and, Brian McDonald went astray but the reasonably direct approach served Laois well in the early stages.

Padraig Clancy got the scoreboard ticking over after four minutes when he took a pass from Lawlor to put Laois in front. Lawlor then really got into his stride and he angled over a nice score on ten minutes to double l.aois' advantage Then Laois showed a real ruthless streak and when Derry were careless in working the ball out of defence Chris Conway made a dangerous gallop through the centre, drew the cover and passed to Lawlor who buried the ball past Shane O'Kane in the Derry goals. Lawlor kicked a point straight after that and then turned provider for Chris Conway to put Laois seven up.

It was disappointing that Laois lost their shape afterwards and with Derry bringing Enda Muldoon back from his initial posting at wing-forward to clog up the centre in typical Ulster fashion, Laois struggled big time for the remainder of the first half. The Derry halfbacks and half-forwards gobbled up a serious amount of breaks and by half-time they had the difference down to three points and it could have been more had either Paddy Bradley or Conleth Gilligan not made some truly horrendous shooting efforts.

Their goal, however, was more about good luck for them or bad Laois defending than any sort of creativity. A long Enda Muldoon ball bounced over Joe Higgins and Kevin Fitzpatrick and Bradley kept his composure to round Michael Nolan to get the first of his 1-4 tally. Bradley seemed to take more than four steps but it’s hard to know if referees are even counting anymore.

Points from Barry McGoldrick and Bradley (free) got the difference down to two points but Laois had the last score of the half when Munnelly shot a brilliant point under pressure to leave Laois 1-5 to 1-2 up at the half-way stage.

Brendan Quigley came in at the break to attempt to break down Derry around the centre and with Clancy going wing-forward and Gary Kavanagh coming off. Laois did start to exert a bit of dominance in that area again.

Noel Garvan and Quigley were both very impressive in the second half and that pair combined for Quigley to kick the first of his two points.

But Derry, with the aid of the breeze, were starting to get value for the possession they had and they kicked seven points to two - Munnelly with both of the Laois points to go in front (1-9 to 1-8) with ten minutes remaining. Yet Laois certainly didn't lie down, Garvan set up Quigley again to tie things up.

Gilligan then put Derry in front again but through O'Leary and McMahon Laois looked as though would get the win before Gilligan once more found his range to save Derry.

The full consequences of the result will become clearer with time.

LAOIS

Scorers: Paul Lawlor 1-2, Ross Munnelly 0-3, Brendan Quigley 0-2, Padraig McMahon, Padraig Clancy, Chris Conway and Peter O'Leary 0-1 each.

Team: Michael Nolan; Cathal Ryan, Kevin Fitzpatrick. Joe Higgins; Padraig McMahon. Darren Rooney, Brian McCormack; Padraig Clancy, Noel Garvan; Gary Kavanagh, Chris Conway, David Murphy; Brian McDonald, Paul Lawlor, Ross Munnelly. Subs' Brendan Quigley for Kavanagh (half-time), Peter O'Leary for Fitzpatrick (53 mins -injured), Barry Brennan for Conway (53 mins), Billy Sheehan for Murphy (63 mins).

DERRY

Scorers: Paddy Bradley 1-4 (0-2 frees), Conleth Gilligan 0-4 (two frees), James Conway 0-2 and Barry McGoldrlck 0-1.

Team: Shane Kane; Kevin McGuckian, Kevin McCloy, Ruari Murray, Paul O'Hea. Sean Martin Lockhart. Gerard O'Kane; Fergal Doherty, James Conway; Barry McGoldrick, Conleth Gilligan, Paddy Bradley; Raymond Wilkinson, Enda Muldoon, Paul Bradley. Subs: Mark Lynch for McGoldrick (42 mins), Patsy Bradley for O'Kane (51 mins), Joe Diver for Wilkinson (55 mins).

Referee: Jimmy White (Donegal)

Leinster Express Man of the Match

Ross Munnelly (Laois)

ALTHOUGH It wasn't his best game ever for Laois, It was Ross Munnelly's best game so far this year and another sign that he's beginning to grow Into the comer-forward rote that's relatively new to him at this level.

He kicked three brilliant points from play last Sunday and it possibly should have been four had referee Jimmy White not over-ruled his umpires late on to decree that Munnelly's effort was wide.

Over the course of the game and especially in the second half, he tormented his marker Ruairi Murray to an unbelievable extent and the way he cut inside him on numerous occasions was typical of him at his best.