Laois secured the dubious honour of a Leinster football quarter-final tie with Dublin in Kilkenny’s Nowlan Park early next month, but only with a deeply unimpressive and barely deserved win over Division Four opponents on home soil.

Ronan McNabb will play no part in Tyrone’s Ulster Football Championship opener against Derry on Sunday week.

Fermanagh 1-17 Laois 0-10: Fermanagh boosted their prospects of staying in Division 2, with Tomás Corrigan scoring a brilliant match-winning haul of 1-11 to push Laois further into relegation danger.

O’Byrne Cup - Meath 2-16 Laois 0-14: Laois manager Mick Lillis has dismissed the suggestion that the appointment of Bryan Cullen as Dublin GAA’s high performance manager illustrates the widening gap between the capital and other counties in Leinster.

O’Byrne Cup - Laois 1-10 UCD 1-9: An injury-time point from sub Ruairí O’Connor got Mick Lillis’s tenure as Laois manager off to a winning start in Ratheniska yesterday.

St Vincent’s 3-11 Portlaoise 0-10

Portlaoise 2-14 Arles-Killeen 0-9

Portlaoise 1-9 Moorefield 0-8

Portlaoise 2-08 Arles-Killeen 1-08

Sigerson Cup quarter-final: DCU 2-10 UCD 0-6

Ballymun Kickhams 0-11 Portlaoise 0-8

Portlaoise (Laois) 1-11 Emmet Óg Killoe (Longford) 2-05

Portlaoise (Laois) 3-15 St Patrick’s (Wicklow) 0-4

Dublin 1-12 Laois 0-12

Laois manager Justin McNulty admits the underwhelming performance by his charges in scraping over the line against Carlow will not be good enough to progress in the second round of qualifiers.

Laois 1-10 Carlow 0-9

Down had too much scoring power for Laois and consigned the hosts to Division 2 for next year.

Laois 0-10 Down 2-11, Portlaoise

The opposing managers were at odds after the final whistle of this dramatic game which ended with Laois securing a victory that helps them in their battle to avoid relegation, and maintains their hopes of grasping a semi-final berth.

Cork may have been disappointed when stripped of home advantage for this tie but their trip to the midlands proved a perfect tonic for a side that shed points on its two previous away jaunts.

Cork 2-14 Laois 0-10

Kilkenny have made four changes in personnel from the team which beat Tipperary in the league first round with keeper Eoin Murphy making his league debut in place of David Herity, while Conor Fogarty, Richie Doyle and Richie Hogan all come into the side.

Pat Gilroy believes there’s more to come from Eoghan O’Gara after his scintillating scoring return in a wet Portlaoise on Saturday night.

Dublin 1-14 Laois 1-9

For the third time in seven years DCU climbed to the Sigerson Cup winner’s podium on Saturday afternoon at Pearse Stadium.

DCU 2-17 NUI Maynooth 0-7

For the first time since 1976, NUI Maynooth will feature in the Sigerson Cup final as the John Divilly’s outfit ended a luckless run of semi-final defeats at Dangan yesterday.

NUI Maynooth held off a late challenge from 14-man UCD to forge a deserved victory in last night’sfloodlit Sigerson Cup quarter-final.

MAYBE there was a direct correlation between a lifeless Donegal performance that saw them fall to a second loss in Division One on the same weekend Kevin Cassidy announced his retirement from inter-county football.

Allianz Football League Division 2: Donegal 2-6 Laois 2-9

Mayo 1-11 Laois 0-8

Dublin goalkeeper Shane Supple claims he was approached by Kildare management about transferring to the county last year after missing out on the Blues panel.

Justin McNulty may have fielded a new-look Laois side but they still proved the dominant force as they completely overwhelmed a disappointing Wexford side at Wexford Park yesterday.

DECEMBER football doesn’t enjoy the most enviable of reputations but the Dublin and Laois champions made light of the heavy and Baltic conditions yesterday to deliver one of the best games seen in the last 12 months.

RED-HOT favourites Portlaoise had to wait until the second-half beforebeing able to impose their authority on a gallant Rathnew side in this quarter-final clash at O’Moore Park yesterday.

APPEARING in their first Leinster Club SFC tie since a 2007 drubbing at the hands of the same opponents, Louth champions St. Patrick’s provided much stiffer opposition this time and only a point in the last minute of extra-time from Portlaoise defender Conor Boyle spared the hosts’ blushes.

PORTLAOISE won a historic fifth Laois SFC title in a row yesterday with a clinical second-half display against Graiguecullen.

LAOIS 1-15 DONEGAL 1-11

Laois 0-11 Tyrone 1-12

AN ATTACKING masterclass by Tyrone full-forward Matthew Donnelly underpinned UUJ’s triumph over NUI Maynooth in yesterday’s first Sigerson Cup semi-final in Belfield.