The Laois minor football team that faced Longford.
U20 Footballers:
Laois’ 12 point win away to Wicklow in Round 3 last Tuesday night, secured Laois’ 1st place group finish in Group 2 after Laois completed an unbeaten group stage run with Laois winning all 3 of their group games (previous wins over Carlow in Round 1 and Wexford in Round 2).
With Laois placed as Group 2 winners, they qualified for an upcoming quarter final versus Meath (who finished as Runners Up in Group 3). Laois will now face Meath (in Ashbourne on Tuesday 16th April at 7.30pm) in the quarter final and then if Laois win, they will qualify for a semi final in which the draw for the semi final is an open draw.
Buy your tickets for the Meath game here: https://www.universe.com/events/eirgrid-leinster-u-20-fc-2024-quarter-final-meath-v-laois-tickets-0N57VW
The match will be live streamed on Clubber TV: clubber.ie
Live match scores and updates will be provided on our official Twitter page: @CLGLaois
U20 Leinster Football Championship Group 2 Round 3: Wicklow vs Laois in Blessington GAA Grounds on Tuesday April 9th.
Final score:
Wicklow: 0-6
Laois: 2-12
Changes from the Wexford game: Cillian Maher, Rory Lalor and Jamie Conway were handed their first starts of the Leinster Championship 2024 campaign.
Standout players for Laois:
Both Colin McEvoy (Portlaoise) and Killian Byrne (Ballyroan Abbey) were very strong in midfield and set up their teammates with some great scores as a result of their fine play. St.Joseph’s Cormac Murphy’s defensive strength and skills helped aid this great midfield play too.
In the Laois attack, Stradbally’s Cillian Maher was awarded with his first start of this year’s Leinster championship campaign and proved this to be very deserved as he produced a fantastic performance scoring 1-1 on the night.
Clonaslee St.Manman’s Cathal Lee followed up his excellent performance against Wexford in Round 2 with another one, being the games top scorer with 1-4.
Photo credit: Paul Dargan
Photo credit: Paul Dargan
U20 Hurlers:
LU20HC Tier 1 Group 2 Round 3 Wexford vs Laois in Wexford Park on Saturday April 13th
Final score:
Wexford: 0-18
Laois: 0-18
Changes from the Kilkenny game: Diarmuid Dooley started in place of Joe Pearson and Tommy Brennan started in place of Aaron Phelan.
Prior to this match, both the Laois and Wexford hurlers had previous defeats to Kilkenny so this determined the knockout permutations for both sides. With Kilkenny topping the group and through to a semi final. The winner of this Laois vs Wexford game got a quarter final place and the defeated side a preliminary quarter-final.
As the result of this game was a draw and an exciting one. This meant Wexford went through to the quarter finals and Laois the preliminary quarter finals on the basis of score difference to separate the sides knockout qualification.
The score difference was that Wexford scored more points against Kilkenny than Laois scored against Kilkenny. Wexford scored 2-14 compared to Laois’ 1-13.
Laois play the preliminary quarter final on Saturday April 27th (opponent, venue and time to be announced) However we do know that Laois will face Kildare/Meath.
Standout players vs Wexford: Ben Deegan (Camross) scored a total of 14 points of which 13 of these were excellently taken frees which were vital for Laois and Ben Deegan was brilliant in his free taking duties also against Kilkenny. Goalkeeper Brochan O’Reilly (Portlaoise) scored 2 points from incredible distances on frees also including scoring one from inside his own 45 line. Scores from frees were influential for Laois’ game and draw result gained but Cormac Byrne (Abbeyleix) deserves credit for winning frees for Laois at vital times when he burst through the Wexford defence on goal with great pace. Tom Cuddy (Camross) was very effective as a sweeper with a positive impact in defense and Conor Fitzpatrick (Park Ratheniska-Timahoe) had a great influence on the game too as he hurled very deep and carried out a lot of ball.
Photo credit: Oonagh Maher
Photo credit: Oonagh Maher
Minor Football
Changes from the Offaly game: Ruairi Bourke (Emo) and Hugh Connolly (Portarlington) started vs Longford in place of Aidan Byrne (Mountmellick) and Sean Moran (Portarlington) who were on the bench.
Leinster Minor Football Championship Group 1 Round 3 Longford vs Laois in Pearse Park Longford Saturday April 13th.
Final score
Longford: 1-6
Laois: 0-15
Despite the winning result for Laois not having any competitive implications as Laois were previously eliminated from Leinster Championship by Offaly in Round 2, the motivational impact was surely a very important one to give these young Laois players a boost in deserved confidence to bring forward with them when they next compete in the new All Ireland Tier 3 competition that Laois will play from this mid May til July 2024. Further details regarding this competition’s exact format, opponents for Laois, dates/times/venues will be released soon as the competition is set for mid May.
Standout players vs Longford: Goalkeeper Liam Conroy (Portlaoise) made a great penalty save. Number 2 Jack Murphy (Portarlington) Number 3. Ben O’Connor
(Portlaoise) and Number 4. Tom Corcoran. (Portarlington). These 3 players of the Laois full backline put in solid defensive work and Longford found it difficult to break through and also won important balls in that came in for Laois when Longford were setting up good scoring chances. The 3 Laois defenders man marked well whilst also creating a good passage of play amongst eachother to successfully play the Laois ball out from the back and into the safety of the Laois midfield. Number 10. Calum McElroy (Arles Kilcruise) displayed incredible strength, skill and pace scoring 2 points. Also McElroy got a goal effort unlucky to hit the post. Ennae Byrne (Arles Killeen) continues to impress and had an incredible 2nd half in particular and scored a total of 4 points throughout the game.
Photo credit: Crocky Maher
Photo credit: Crocky Maher
