Rampant Portlaoise cut loose on BallyroanAbbey and advance to Laois senior football final

LAOIS SHOPPING CENTRE SENIOR FOOTBALL SEMI FINAL

PORTLAOISE 1-17

BALLYROAN-ABBEY 0-6

Portlaoise are comfortably through to the Laois senior football final after they easily accounted for a disjointed Ballyroan-Abbey on Sunday. It was as comfortable as the scoreline suggests as Portlaoise dominated proceedings from pillar to post.

Ballyroan will be hugely disappointed with their performance as they lacked any real bite or intention going forward. Contrast that with Portlaoise who attacked with venom and pace at every opportunity and it certainly bore fruit on the day,

Ballyroan-Abbey opened the scoring in the third minute through a Brian Whelan free but it was the seasoned campaigners of Portlaoise who started the better generally.

Damon Larkin equalised with the next attack before a points from Gareth Dillon and Ronan McEvoy put them 0-3 to 0-1 ahead while Brendan Carroll also had an excellent goal chance to push them further ahead only to be denied by Paudie McDonald in the Ballyroan goals.

Padraig McMahon got a badly needed score for Ballyroan but that only briefly stemmed the Portlaoise tide as they continued their impressive start.

With conviction, they attacked through the middle with centre forward Gareth Dillon enjoying plenty of chances and room as his speed caused big problems for the Ballyroan defence.

Points from Ronan McEvoy, Kieran Lillis and a fine team score that resulted in Gareth Dillon's second of the day, left Portlaoise 0-5 to 0-2 up at the water break and they were full value for it.

Gareth Dillon slapped over his third of the day just after the water break while a second of the day for Ronan McEvoy left them comfortable at 0-7 to 0-2 after 24 minutes as Ballyroan proved toothless in attack.

Paul Cahilline notched a tricky free to extend their lead but Padraig McMahon did finally add a third score for Ballyroan, 20 minutes after their second.

Portlaoise kept the pressure on in the closing stages of the half with wing back Frank Flanagan raiding up to kick a score off his left while a second free from Cahillane and a first for Conor Boyle left them 0-11 to 0-3 up at the half time whistle.

Portlaoise showed no let up early in the second half either. With less than 40 seconds on the clock, Kieran Lillis finished off a fine team with his second point of the day while two frees from Ronan McEvoy in quick succession had them absolutely cruising at 0-14 to 0-3 after 40 minutes.

It was over as a contest at this stage and after a scrappy and heated few minutes of play, Ballyroan-Abbey finally got their opening score of the second half on 46 minutes, just before the water break, from a Brian Whelan free.

Portlaoise showed their experience in the final quarter, simply holding on to the ball and not taking any real risk. Their patience was rewarded with 10 minutes to go as a move through the hands ended up with substitute John Kavanagh finding the net from close range.

Conor Boyle, Damon Larkin and Ronan McEvoy all added points in the final 10 minutes while two late scores from Padraig McMahon and MJ Tierney brought Ballyroan's tally to six points.

BALLYROAN ABBEY

Scorers: Padraig Mahon 0-3 (0-1f), Brian Whelan 0-2 frees, MJ Tierney 0-1 free

Team: Paudie McDonald; Mark Cahill, Aaron Carroll, Aaron McEvoy; Conor McWey, Martin Scully, Ciaran Byrne; Diarmuid Whelan, Sean Murphy; Cathal Doyle, Davin McEvoy, Shaun Fitzpatrick; Padraig McMahon, Charlie Whelan, Brian Whelan. Subs: Conaire Gee for Charlie Whelan (21), MJ Tierney for Ciaran Byrne (ht), Colm Walsh for Shaun Fitzpatrick (43), Enda McWey for Davin McEvoy (43), Danny Brennan for Aaron McEvoy (46)

PORTLAOISE

Scorers: Ronan McEvoy 0-5 (0-2 frees), Gareth Dillon 0-3, John Kavanagh 1-0, Kieran Lillis, Paul Cahillane (both frees), Conor Boyle, Damon Larkin 0-2 each, Frank Flanagan 0-1.

Team: Michael O'Connell; Gary Saunders, Ben Dempsey, Kevin Swayne; Frank Flanagan, Chris Finn, Ronan McEvoy; Kieran Lillis, Ciaran McEvoy; Conor Boyle, Gareth Dillon, Damon Larkin; Paul Cahillane, Brendan Carroll, Paddy Downey. Subs: Graham Brody for Michael O'Connell inj (7), David Holland for Paddy Downey inj (23), Ricky Maher for Brendan Carroll (38), John Kavanagh for Paul Cahillane (46), Josh Hogan for Kevin Swayne (46)

Referee: Maurice Deegan

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