Nervous finish, but Laois hold on

RUMOURS of Laois’ demise would appear to be slightly premature it seems, despite the last 20 minutes in Donnycarney yesterday when Sean Dempsey’s side almost let an 11-point lead slip through their fingers.

It is just two years since the midlanders pushed Dublin to the pin of their collar in a provincial final but they made the trip to the capital on the back of an indifferent league campaign and stalked by doubt.

Familiar criticisms made the journey with them. Too light. Too inconsistent. With only three of their 2003 Leinster-winning team starting, another negative was added – too inexperienced.

The last 25 minutes would suggest that the last of those accusations holds some water but this was, nevertheless, a performance to suggest that they can hold realistic hope of victory against Kildare in the semi-final.

Other ‘vets’ like Joe Higgins and Noel Garvan should be fit to push for places by then but this is, in many ways, a completely different Laois team to the one that competed in four out of five Leinster finals this decade.

Dempsey had the panel following a strict weights programme until only last week. Some of them still look like they could do with a good steak dinner but height is no longer an issue. Eleven of the starting 15 stood six foot or higher.

Their performance here, until, the final quarter, came as a pleasant surprise to their supporters who had resigned themselves to a summer of mediocrity but the win needs to be placed in context.

Louth continue to be an infuriating enigma. They pushed Cork to within two points in the final round of the All-Ireland qualifiers two years ago and 10 of that side started yesterday.

They were 1-13 to 0-5 in arrears with 47 minutes played on this occasion as, once again, they failed to bring their ‘A’ game to the provincial table when it was needed the most.

Laois have lost numerous leaders, men like Fergal Byron and Chris Conway, in recent times but enough of the younger crop came to the fore here to build up the lead that saw them home.

John O’Loughlin at wing-back, Kevin Meaney at midfield and MJ Tierney up front can all take a bow. Old hands like Darren Rooney and Padraic Clancy stepped up to the plate too.

It was Clancy who kickstarted his team’s surge after only five minutes when his speculative ball bounced past goalkeeper Stuart Reynolds who had one eye on the vast frame of Donie Kingston nearby.

Laois mixed the good with the bad for the remainder of the half, constructing sublime passing movements one minute and coughing up possession at the slightest touch the next.

It was still too much for Louth who failed to service their forward line with any usable ball on the occasions that they did actually manage to wrestle possession from Laois’ dominant midfield.

With the wind at their backs to boot, Laois reached half-time 1-9 to 0-4 in front and they added four points to Louth’s one in the dozen minutes after the break. That seemed to be that.

Not so. Laois took a siesta after Ross Munnelly’s first point stretched the gap to 11 but there still seemed to be little cause for alarm eight minutes later when Louth put two points together for the first time.

Slowly but surely, that changed. Two goal attempts were blocked by defenders before Aaron Hoey made it third time lucky 20 minutes from time. Darren Rooney answered with a point but the dye was set.

The rest of Laois’ afternoon would be spent fire-fighting.

Adrian Reid should have had a penalty sixty seconds later when Clancy pushed him, blatantly, in the back while bearing down on goal but that was merely one strange decision in a catalogue of them from the referee.

Louth pushed on regardless, edging to within a goal with four successive points before Tierney’s fifth free gave the eventual winners some badly-needed breathing space.

Scorers for Laois: P Clancy 1-3, MJ Tierney 0-6 (5f), P O’Leary 0-2, D Rooney 0-1, J O’Loughlin 0-1, B McCormack 0-1, R Munnelly 0-1.

Subs: P McNulty for Kingston 57, C Coss for Munnelly 70.

Scorers for Louth: A Hoey 1-1, D Clarke 0-3 (2f), B White 0-3f, S Lennon 0-2 (1f), P Keenan 0-1, C Judge 0-1.

Subs: A Reid for D Reid 30, A Hoey for Crilly 46, P Nixon for Judge 46.

Referee: M Duffy (Sligo) .