REPORT: Late Dublin push puts gloss on scoreline as Laois remain pointless

Laois are still searching for their first win in this year's league after Dublin left O'Moore Park on Saturday evening with the two points.

The game was entertaining but the result evaded Laois who did have their chances. Donal Burke fired 18 points for the winners as the Laois free count came back to haunt them. Referee Paud Dwyer had a strong hand in some of those frees and that infuriated Laois players and management throughout the game.

Dublin 0-30

Laois 1-19

It's another 70 minutes in the bank from a Laois point of view and while the scoreboard flattered Dublin, there was no doubting they were the better the team as Donal Burke stood a class apart.

Laois roared out of the blocks and aided by a strong breeze they took the lead on 11 seconds with Paddy Purcell latching getting on a loose ball, bursting through and firing over. Dublin levelled shortly after but Laois had a cut about them and went into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead after five minutes with PJ Scully, Cha Dwyer and Ciaran Collier all getting on the scoresheet.

Dublin did get going with Daire Gray and frees from Donal Burke cutting the arrears but that man Cha Dwyer was on target again with a sideline cut while Purcell notched his second of the day.

Referee Paud Dwyer was particularly harsh on Laois in the opening stages and Dublin capatilised with Burke and late addition to the team, Cian Boland firing over to level it at 0-6 each.

Laois were the better side but aided by the breeze, the game was still level at the water break at 0-7 each and all to play for.

The game was a right good contest but Dublin began to pull away after the water break and as the Laois free count racked up (albeit some of them extremely harsh), Dublin's ace marksman Donal Burke punished them.

Cha Dwyer kept Laois in touch with his third point of the day but with Burke to the fore again, Dublin pulled away into a 0-13 to 0-9 lead just before half time.

Laois, to their credit, kept going until the half time whistle and were rewarded with two sublime Ross King points to leave it 0-13 to 0-11 at half time in favour of Dublin.

A combination of lazy tackling and some terrible decisions from referee Paud Dwyer saw Dublin freetaker Donal Burke fire over five frees in the opening nine minutes of the second half as daylight began to open up between the sides.

Leading 0-18 to 0-13 and with the wind, Dublin were now firmly in control and they pushed on in style. Andrew Dunphy, Conor Burke and the excellent Donal Burke all added scores and by the time Laois got their first score in seven minutes on 52 minutes, Dublin led 0-22 to 0-15.

Just before the second half water break and against the run of play, Laois got a lifeline when Cha Dwyer, despite being surrounded on the edge of the box, skillfully lifted the ball and struck overhead with his back to goal to find the empty net and make it 0-22 to 1-15 at the end of the third quarter.

PJ Scully and Conor Burke traded scores and with 10 minutes to go, Dublin led by four. The final 10 minutes was a low scoring affair, Donal Burke added a free either side of a Ross King point before Burke again landed one from play to leave it 0-26 to 1-17 with normal time almost up.

Dublin added a late surge of points and for the second week in a row, the scoreboard flattered a team that beat Laois following on from Wexford last weekend.

LAOIS

SCORERS: Cha Dwyer 1-3 (0-1 S/L)PJ Scully 0-6 frees, Ross King (0-6 (0-4 frees), Paddy Purcell 0-2, Enda Rowand (free), Ciaran Collier 0-1 EACH

TEAM: Enda Rowland; Diarmuid Conway, Sean Downey, Donnchadh Hartnett; Padraig Delaney, Matthew Whelan, Jack Kelly; Fiachra C Fennell, Paddy Purcell; James Ryan, Cha Dwyer, Ciaran Collier; PJ Scully, Ross King, Aaron Dunphy. Subs: James Keyes for Diarmuid Conway (47m), Eoin Gaughan for PJ Scully (54m), Ciaran Comerford for James Ryan (54m), Colm Stapleton for Padraig Delaney inj (67m), Ciaran McEvoy for Fiachra Fennell (68m)

DUBLIN

SCORERS: Donal Burke 0-18 (0-14 frees, 0-1 '65), Andrew Dunphy and Conor Burke 0-2 each, Sean Moran, Davy Keogh, Eamon Dillon, Rian McBride, Fergal Whitely, Cian Boland and Paul Crummey 0-1 each.

TEAM: Alan Nolan; Paddy Smyth, Eoghan O'Donnell, Andrew Dunphy; Sean Moran, Liam Rushe, Daire Gray; Conor Burke, James Madden; Danny Sutcliffe, Donal Burke, Chris Crummey; Ronan Hayes, Eamon Dillon, Cian Boland. Subs: Oisin O'Rourke for Cian Boland (51m), Davy Keogh for Eamon Dillon (51m), Rian McBride for James Madden (55m), Fergal Whitely for Ronan Hayes (59m), Jake Malone for Sean Moran (66m), John Hetherton for Danny Sutcliffe (70m), Paul Crummey for Chris Crummey (70m)

Referee: Paud Dwyer (Carlow)