Semi Final Vault: Powerful second half display sees Laois make 2007 Leinster football decider

It was out with the old and in with the new in 2007 as Liam Kearns marked his first year in charge of the Laois senior footballers with a Leinster final appearance. Along the way, they got over a sticky Wexford side in the semi final by producing a much improved second half performance.

Leinster Senior Football Semi Final 2007

Laois 1-13

Wexford 0-13

A goal midway through the second half from Emo's Paul Lawlor proved the crucial score for a Laois side who ultimately didn't perform to their potential.

Four points down at the break, they got it back to a three point game before Lawlor struck to level it up and give the Laois men the momentum to push on for the win.

Wexford finished the game with 14 men with David Murphy seeing red and making the Wexford task even harder.

MJ Tierney chipped in with seven points on the day and was involved in the build up to the goal. The Ballyroan man commented after the game that a performance like it against Dublin in the final wouldn't be good enough.

While they were poor for large parts, when the game went into the melting pot, Laois were the ones stirring the hardest and showed great guile to get over the line particularly after the big defeat to Dublin the previous year.

"Paul Caffrey (Dublin manager) won't be too worries from what he saw from us today", was the assessment of manager Kearns after the game from semi finals are for winning and Laois, who had suffered semi final defeat 12 months earlier didn't need anyone to tell them that.

With that stinging defeat from 2006 still eating away at them, the Laois troops were determined to banish a few demons. And that they did...

An interesting aside is that the referee on the day was Martin Sludden, who three years later would be a central figure in the Meath v Louth Leinster final when Joe Sheridan scored that controversial late goal.

The teams and scorers from the 1st of July 2007 were;

LAOIS

SCORERS: MJ Tierney 0-7 frees, Paul Lawlor 1-0, Colm Parkinson 0-2, Padraig Clancy, Cathal Ryan, Chris Conway and Peter O'Leary 0-1 each.

TEAM: Fergal Byron; Joe Higgins, Tom Kelly, Cathal Ryan; Padraig McMahon, Darren Rooney, Brian McCormack, Padraig Clancy, Brendan Quigley; Ross Munnelly, Chris Conway, Colm Parkinson; Michael Tierney, Paul Lawlor, Donie Brennan. Subs: Peter O'Leary for Donie Brennan, Brian McDonald for Chris Conway, Rory Stapleton for Padraig McMahon, David Murphy for Paul Lawlor.

WEXFORD

SCORERS: Ciaran Lyng 0-7 (0-3 frees), Matty Forde 0-4 (0-3 frees), Adrian Morrissey and Redmond Barry 0-1 each

TEAM: John Cooper; Niall Murphy, Brian Malone, Colm Morris; Adrian Morrissey, David Murphy, Adrian Flynn; Rory Stafford, Eric Bradley; Ciaran Deely, Redmond Barry, David Murphy; Paddy Colfer, Ciaran Lyng, Matty Forde. Subs: Johnny Mernagh for Eric Bradley, Paddy Byrne for Johnny Mernagh, Rory Quinlivan for Rory Stafford, Andreas Doyle for Ciaran Deely.