Hennessy goal fires Laois past Carlow

Laois were made to sweat for it but in the end they prevailed and edged out Carlow by three points to claim victory in the opening round of the Leinster U20 hurling championship.

As uncertainty hangs over the remainder of the championship, Laois did their job and got over a stubborn and game Carlow side.

Laois 1-15

Carlow 0-15

It was far from convincing and in truth an average game of hurling at best with a Mark Hennessy goal 12 minutes from time proving a timely tonic for the Laois men who were trailing by two points at the time.

Carlow looked the better side for large chunks of the game but to be fair to Laois, when the game was in the melting pot, they had the class and composure to pull away.

There was little of nothing to separate the sides in the opening half but it was Carlow who struck first through ace attacker Ciaran Kavanagh.

His opening effort was a free but we would go on to puck all of Carlow’s opening four scores, a mixture of points from play and from frees.

Laois took a 0-2 to 0-1 lead with Daniel Delaney knocking over a free and Mark Hennessy opening his account.

Kavanagh and Carlow then stole a march and a 0-4 to 0-2 lead established. The sides traded scores for the Carlow men to hold on to their two point lead but Daniel Delaney landed two frees just before the water break to square it up at the mini interval.

The water intake was kind to Laois and two quick fire frees from Delaney saw them open up a 0-7 to 0-5 lead with 10 minutes left to play in the opening half.

Just as it looked like Laois would hold the upper hand at half time, Carlow turned the screw and finished the half with a flurry.

John Dolye fired over from distance before two pointed frees from Ciaran Kavanagh in the 29th and first minute of first half injury time sent the Carlow men in leading at half time – 0-8 to 0-7.

Ciaran Fitzpatrick extended the Carlow lead early in the second half but as Laois rung the changes, they began to get back into the game.

Ciaran Byrne narrowed the gap to one before half time substitute Ciaran Conroy floated over one of the scores of the evening from a narrow angle to level the game at nine points each.

Carlow then pulled two clear again but a super score from Mark Hennessy for the Laois men cut the arrears to the minimum.

Carlow may have been underdogs coming into the game but they were proving their worth and James Doyle landed his third point to send the Carlow men 0-12 to 0-10 clear at the second water break.

With 12 minutes to go, Laois caught a break. A high ball into the Carlow goalmouth broke down and Mark Hennessy latched on. He looked to be off balance when getting his shot away but the sliother found its way to the net and put Laois a point up coming into the final 10 minutes.

Adam Kirwan landed a free before Tomas Keyes fired over a point just before he was replaced to leave it 1-12 to 0-12.

Carlow replied quickly but Ciaran Conroy fired over his second of the night to restore their three point lead with five minutes to go.

Both sides traded points as the game petered to a finish with Laois running out three point winners.

Laois

Scorers: Daniel Delaney 0-5 (all frees), Mark Hennessy 1-2, Ciaran Conroy 0-2, Ciaran Byrne 0-2, Adam Kirwan 0-2 (0-1 free, 0-1 65), Tomás Keyes 0-1, Tadhg Cuddy 0-1. 

Team: Cathal Dunne (Clough-Ballacolla); Danny Brennan (Park-Ratheniska-Timahoe), Conor Cosgrove (Rosenallis), Aaron Gaughan (Castletown); Fionan Mahoney (Abbeyleix), Enda Parlon (Borris-Kilcotton), Padraic Dunne (The Harps); Thep Fitzpatrick (Rathdowney-Errill), Joe Phelan (Castletown); Fionn Whelan (The Harps), Daniel Delaney (Camross), Liam Delaney (Camross); Tomas Keyes (Camross), Ciaran Byrne (Abbeyleix), Mark Hennessy (Clough-Ballacolla). Subs: Tadhg Cuddy (Castletown) for Thep Fitzpatrick (HT), Ciaran Conroy for Liam Delaney (HT), James Duggan (The Harps) for Fionn Whelan (36m), Adam Kirwan (Trumera) for Daniel Delaney (46m), Cormac Rigney (Portlaoise) for Tomas Keyes (55m)

Carlow

Scorers: Ciaran Kavanagh 0-8 (0-4 frees), John Doyle 0-3, Oisin Ryan 0-1, Conor Treacy 0-1, John McCullagh 0-1, Scott Treacy 0-1.

Team:  Ciaran Abbey; Eoin Kavanagh, Jack Ryan, Eoin Dowling; P O’Se, Cian Doyle, Niall Bolger; Eoin Hosey, Jack McCullagh; John Doyle, Fiachra Fitzpatrick Scott Treacy; Conor Kehoe, Ciaran Kavanagh, Fiach O’Toole. Subs: Daire Nolan for Eoin Dowling (34m), Oisin Ryan for Fiach O’Toole (40m), Jason Wall for Scott Treacy (42m), Conor Treacy for Fiachra Fitzpatrick (54m)

Referee: Richie Fitzsimons (Offaly)