Lethargic Laois not Offaly-sharp

Laois 1-13 Meath 0-8

Yesterday's performance, though, will hardly fill the victors with confidence ahead of their date with a side they relegated to Division Two of the NHL.

Meath manager John Hunt was forced to field an understrength side after a spate of injuries robbed him of some of his best players, notably chief marksman Nicky Horan. Such was the strain on their resources that regular goalkeeper Mark Gannon was pressed into service at full-forward. Under the circumstances and the fact that they were reduced to 14-men after 25 minutes holding Laois to an eight-point margin was laudable.

But Laois were guilty of a lack of urgency. They needed to reach top gear, at least intermittently, before the Offaly tie and manager Paudie Butler was left scratching his head when asked to explain away yesterday's jaunt.

That said, they started well enough. By the 22nd minute, they were 1-8 to 0-1 in front without having pushed themselves greatly. Centre-half forward James Young was top of the scoring charts as usual, slotting over four frees and claiming the goal as well.

Corner-forward Damien Culleton can take a bow for his part in that, soloing through the heart of Meath's defence before feeding the Clonaslee-St Manman's player to round the move off with a drive past Mark Brennan.

Meath managed to stem the flood after that, despite Thomas Reilly's sending off after 25 minutes for a second bookable offence.

Strangely, Laois seemed to tire of the hunt there and then. Michael Cole came on for Meath in the wake of Reilly's foolishness and offered greater drive to their front line. By half-time he hit over two points, one from play, but his side were still facing a 1-9 to 0-4 deficit.

Unbelievably, Laois's tardiness continued after the interval. Managing only three points in the first 13 minutes of the second period was bad enough, but failing to score for another 22 was positively criminal.

Meath weren't a whole lot better, but they landed three points of their own, the pick of them a beauty over the shoulder from distance by Cole. However, the goal they needed to inject some life into the game never really looked like arriving.

Robert Jones roused himself long enough in the last minute to flick over his fourth of the day from play to give Laois a double scores win.

LAOIS: K Galvin; C Cuddy, Patrick Cuddy, M McEvoy; J Fitzpatrick, Paul Cuddy (0-1f), R Conroy; D Rooney, J Walsh; R Jones (0-4), J Young (1-6, 5f), E Meagher (0-1); T Fitzgerald (0-1), L Tynan, D Culleton. Subs: E Browne for E Meagher (45), J Dunne for D Rooney (68), P Dunne for J Walsh (68), C Brophy for T Fitzgerald (70).

MEATH: M Brennan, S White, P Roche, S Moran; D Brennen, T Reilly, S Reilly (0-1f); J Canty, D Donnelly; E Lynam (0-2), S Clinch (0-1), M Burke; N Reilly, M Gannon (0-1), T Fox. Subs: M Cole (0-3, 1f) for M Burke (25), A O'Neill for S White (35), P Donoghue for S Moran (42), G O'Neill for T Fox (44), J Keena for J Canty (57).

Referee: J Kelly (Wexford).