Laois beat Wexford by ten points in Leinster SFC opening round

Wexford's Dylan Furlong shakes hands with Niall Corbet of Laois after the game. Picture: Leah Scholes/Inpho

Leinster SFC: Laois 2-21 Wexford 2-11

Laois showed their dominance throughout the seventy minutes with their victory much more convincing than the ten point winning margin as they comfortably saw off a disappointing Wexford side in this opening round Leinster senior football championship played at Chadwicks Wexford Park this evening.

Laois led from the third minute after wing-back Pa Kirwan pointed them in front, and once Patrick O'Sullivan added their opening goal one minute later, they went on to assume control as the homeside struggled all over the pitch.

The eventual winners led 1-5 to 0-1 after fifteen minutes as Mark Barry, Ronan Coffey and Brian Byrne added points, with the homesides solitary score during this opening spell being a Kevin O'Grady fifth minute point.

The momentum was with Laos as Conor Heffernan and Seamus Lacey dominated in midfield, and while Wexford did manage to raise their game adding points through Mark Rossiter, two, Kevin O'Grady and Niall Hughes to reduce the deficit to 1-8 to 0-5, it was Laois who killed the game as a contest six minutes before the break when Donal O'Reilly following a neat approach pas from Kevin Swayne netted to held them to a comfortable 2-12 to 0-6 interval lead.

The Wexford recovery failed to materialise in the second half as without a doubt the Laois dominance continued with Ronan Coffey and Mark Barry tagging on early second half points.

The Laois dominance was built on a greater appetite and workrate, while their slick passing saw them tear gaping holes in the Wexford defence, as they went on to build a 2-16 to 0-9 lead with ten minutes remaining.

While Wexford did manage a late resurgence that produced goals from substitutes Michael Kinsella and Sean Ryan, it was Laois, just to show their dominance, who responded with the closing points through Mrk Barry and Jonah Kelly to set up a quarter-final clash with Louth.

WEXFORD: D Brooks; M Furlong, G Sheehan, L O'Connor; E Porter, E Nolan, P Hughes; L Coleman (0-2), N Hughes (0-1); T Byrne, P Dempsey, M Rossiter (0-45, 3f); K O'Grady (0-2), G Cullen (0-1), C Carty. 

Subs: D Furlong for Nolan (35); M Kinsella (1-0) for Carty (35); C Walsh for Dempsey (56), S Ryan (2-0) for Cullen (56), R Brooks for Byrne (56).

LAOIS: K Roche (0-1, 45); B Dempsey, T Collins (0-1), P O'Sullivan (1-0); P Kirwan (0-4), S Fingleton, J Brennan; C Heffernan (0-1), S Lacey; K Swayne (0-1), M Barry(0-5, 2f), D O'Reilly (1-0); N Corbet (0-1), B Byrne (0-2), R Coffey (2, 2ptr, 0-4). 

Subs: D Larkin for O'Sullivan (53), B Carroll for Kirwan (62), J Hogan for Fingleton (68), F Holland for O'Reilly (70), J Kelly (0-1) for Byrne (70).

Referee: D Murnane (Cork).