REPORT: Performance improves but still no points for Laois

While it was a much improved performance from Laois, they are still looking for their first league points after Cork left O'Moore Park with the spoils.

Six days from the defeat to Clare, this was a much more tuned in Laois outfit and while they competed well, the end product isn't just there yet.

Cork 2-12

Laois 0-10

They were unlucky as well. They lost Colm Begley through injury in just the second minute and were caught napping soon after when Cork had the ball in the net for the opening goal.

They had chances. Paul Kingston and Mark Timmons had decent shouts at goal chances in the second half but it was encouraging to see the creation of chances compared to last week's poor showing in Ennis.

Laois had two early scoring chances with Kieran Lillis fisting while Evan O'Carroll hit the post but it was Cork who fired the first score of the game in the second minute and it was a real sucker punch as Luke Connolly played in Sean White and the wing forward made no mistake from close range to find the net.

Ciaran Sheehan followed that up by going in the clouds to take a mark and kick the resulting score. Laois got off the mark eight minutes in when Donie Kingston won and kicked over a free but Cork were in control early on.

John O'Rourke extended the Cork lead but Laois did come with a burst before the first water break with Brian Byrne kicking two fantastic scores and Danny O'Reilly curling one over from distance.

Cork tagged on to more to lead 1-4 to 0-4 at the water break but the early evidence was that this was a much improved Laois outfit from six days previous.

Kingston clipped over another free after the water break but then disaster struck for Laois with Cork getting in for their second goal of the evening on 22 minutes as Ruairi Deane finished off a neat passing pattern by coolly slotting past Corbet in the goals.

At 2-4 to 0-5, Laois were now under serious pressure but they didn't wilt and were more than a match for Cork for the remainder of the half even if the scoreboard didn't reflect it.

A Donie Kingston free and a close range effort from Kieran Lillis brought it back to a four point game on 26 minutes but a late Luke Connolly with the last kick of the opening half left it 2-7 to 0-7 at the break.

Niall Corbet pinged over a '45' for the opening score of the second half but as Paul Kingston spurned a good goal chance at one end, Cork broke out of defence and finished off a move with Ian Maguire grabbing his second point of the game.

Laois were not lying down and with a much improved performance, even if the end product was missing at times, they got two more points before the water break with Corbet curling over another '45' and Danny O'Reilly getting his second score of the game to leave it 2-9 to 0-10 at the water break.

As the game started to slip further away from Laois, they had a penalty claim turned away with five minutes to go and once again, Cork came up the field and got a score, this time a Mark Collins free to put them 2-11 to 0-10 in front.

The last few minutes fizzled out with Cork adding a couple of scores to win by eight points.

LAOIS

Scorers: Donie Kingston 0-3f, Niall Corbet (both '45's), Danny O'Reilly and Brian Byrne 0-2 each and Kieran Lillis 0-1.

Team: Niall Corbet; Robbie Piggot, Mark Timmons, Gareth Dillon; Trevor Collins, Colm Begley, Patrick O'Sullivan; Kieran Lillis, John O'Loughlin; Brian Byrne, Eoin Lowry, Danny O'Reilly; Evan O'Carroll, Donie Kingston, Paul Kingston. Subs: Alan Farrell for Colm Begley inj (2m), Mark Barry for Evan O'Carroll (51m), Gary Walsh for Donie Kingston (51m), Michael Keogh for Eoin Lowry (60m), Eoin Buggie for Patrick O'Sullivan (60m), Sean O'Flynn for Brian Byrne (66m), Benny Carroll for Paul Kingston (66m)

CORK

Scorers:Sean White and Ruairi Deane 1-0 each, Ian Maguire, John O'Rourke, Ciaran Sheehan (0-1 mark), Mark Collins (both frees) 0-2 each, Shane Forde, Mattie Taylor, Kevin O'Driscoll and Luke Connolly 0- each.

Team: Michael Martin; Kevin O'Donovan, Daniel O'Mahony, Kevin Flahive; Sean Meehan, Sean Powter, Mattie Taylor; Ian Maguire, Paul Walsh; Sean White, Ruairi Deane, Kevin O'Driscoll; John O'Rourke, Ciaran Sheehan, Luke Connolly. Subs:Damien Gore for Luke Connolly (50m), Colm O'Callaghan for Kevin O'Driscoll (51m), Mark Collins for Ciaran Sheehan (51m), Tadhg Corkery for Mattie Taylor (57m), Cian Kiely for Kevin O'Donovan (59m), Shane Forde for John O'Rourke (64m), Dan Dineen for Sean Powter (64m)

Referee: Barry Judge

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