Preview: Laois v Louth (Leinster SFC Quarter Final)

Preview: Laois v Louth (Leinster SFC Quarter Final)

Written by Laois PR Team:

The Laois senior footballers will play their quarter final game in the 2025 Leinster Senior Football Championship when they face Louth in the neutral venue of Cedral St.Conleths on Sunday April 13th at 3pm.

The winners of Laois vs Louth will face the winners of Kildare/Westmeath in the semi final in a neutral venue on the weekend of April 26th/27th. The defeated team will exit Leinster and enter the Tailteann Cup come the All Ireland stages.

Tickets can be purchased both online and in person using the following options below.

Tickets can be purchased online here: https://www.ticketmaster.ie/laois-v-louth-leinster-senior-football-co-kildare-13-04-2025/event/18006287983E2D48

Juveniles u16 require a ticket.

Tickets can be purchased in person via selected participating SuperValu stores:

SuperValu Stradbally

Breslin’s SuperValu Rathdowney

McConville’s SuperValu Mountmellick

McLoughlin’s SuperValu Portarlington

Mulhall’s SuperValu Portlaoise

SuperValu Abbeyleix

SuperValu Parkside Portlaoise.

Follow live match scores and updates on our official CLG Laois Twitter account: @CLGLaois

Justin McNulty has named the following side to face Louth:

Recent Laois Stats:

In the win over Wexford last weekend in Round 1: Laois recorded their biggest ever HT score in a senior football championship match, passing the 16pts scored against Longford in 2017. HT Score vs Wexford was: 2-12 to 0-6. (12 points lead).

It’s also the biggest ever lead, passing the 10pt leads vs Offaly (1947), Westmeath (1950) and Carlow (2015).

Championship Debuts:

The 5 following Laois players made their senior football championship debuts:

Ronan Coffey (Portarlington)

Liam Knowles (Stradbally)

Josh Hogan (Portlaoise)

Fionn Holland (O’Dempsey’s)

Jonah Kelly (Crettyard)

Leinster SFC Round 1 Recap: In Chadwick’s Wexford Park on Saturday April 5th.

Laois: 2-21

Wexford: 2-11

Laois: Mark Barry 0-7 (two frees), Ronan Coffey 0-6 (one two-pointer, one two-point free), Padraig Kirwan 0-3, Paddy O’Sullivan and Danny O’Reilly 1-0 each, Brian Byrne, Kevin Swayne, Killian Roche (45), Jonah Kelly and Trevor Collins 0-1 each

Wexford: Mark Rossiter 0-5 (three frees), Michael Kinsella and Sean Ryan 1-0 each, Kevin O’Grady and Darragh Brooks (two-point free) 0-2 each, Niall Hughes 0-1, Eoin Porter 0-1

Standout Players (Laois)

In defence: Simon Fingleton was brilliant defensively as alongside directly setting up a Paddy O’Sullivan goal, Simon also prevented a goal from Wexford’s Tom Byrne with a perfectly timed last ditch tackle to turn over possession.

In midfield: Seamus Lacey was highly effective operating in the middle as a positional change from his usual in defence. He adapted to this change with ease with a very impressive showing, producing his physical strength and great ball carrying ability. Lacey directly set up a Ronan Coffey 2 pointer after he won a kickout and went on a massive run forward. Lacey won many more kickouts throughout, leading to him scoring an incredible point from play himself, from long range before having another scoring chance blocked by a defender and out for a 45, converted by Killian Roche.

In attack, both Ronan Coffey and Kevin Swayne contributed massively to Laois’ 10 point win as they both opened up the Wexford defence continously. When the two players combined, it produced some stunning attacking plays. Kevin Swayne with a perfect kick pass to Ronan Coffey, led to Coffey laying a quick hand pass back to Swayne, who finished the move with a lovely point from play. Both Swayne and Coffey combined again in the same way to set up 2 more Pa Kirwan points from play. Standout score of the game came from Ronan Coffey as he scored a point from play from a great angle after the effective & stunning use of a dummy solo. Kevin Swayne’s massive long run with a pass to Paddy O’Sullivan, directly set up Daniel O’Reilly’s goal.

Louth: Finished 6th place in the Division 2 table this 2025 Allianz League season and will remain in Division 2 for 2026.

Last year 2024 and also in 2023, Louth reached 2 successive Leinster SFC Finals and finished as runners up both times with defeats to champions Dublin. Despite defeat, in the 2024 final in particular: Louth were very impressive in the 4 point defeat.

Louth went on to have a positive All Ireland SFC Campaign in 2024 too: progessing from the group stages after a draw vs Monaghan, a win over Meath and a defeat to Kerry. In the preliminary quarter final: Louth defeated Cork by a point before exiting at the quarter final stage with defeat to Donegal by 8 points.

Their top scorer so far is Sam Mulroy with a total score of 1-52 (1-0 penalty goal, 19 frees, 7 two pointer frees, 2 45’s and 4 two pointers from play.)

In defence: left half back Craig Lennon (2024 All Star Winner and Louth’s 2nd only All Star Winner in the county’s history after Paddy Keenan in 2010) Lennon has been very solid defensively protecting the full back line with his strong tackling and has made full use of incredible pace on massive runs going forward, making vital turnovers from defence, to create Louth attacks quickly. (0-1) (0-1)

The following players have also been brilliant in attack, racking up vital scores in 2025: Centre half forward Ciaran Downey has a total score of 0-9 (1 two pointer from play) and Ryan Burns has a total 1-23 from play (6 two pointers,1-0 from play).

Laois vs Louth: Previous Championship Meeting

26th May 2013: Leinster SFC Preliminary Round in Laois Hire O’Moore Park

Laois: 1-6

Louth: 1-16.