All-Ireland MFC Semi-final: Derry1-15, Laois 2-12Extraordinary. Derry's minors can be forgiven for letting their minds wander to an All-Ireland final meeting with Galway considering they led by eight points with six minutes remaining. When Laois's Donie Kingston levelled matters with a fine point in injury time, it must have felt like defeat. A couple of Derry lads even crumbled to the turf.
But it isn't over and these two sides will go at it again, possibly next Saturday in Navan.
Derry looked to have matters wrapped up when Lee Moore registered 1-1 in the 53rd minute to make it 1-15 to 1-7. Laois were struggling to live with the physicality and sheer doggedness of their opponents.
But Derry failed to score again, while Laois wing back Zac Tuohy was redeployed to the forwards and delivered three outstanding scores. His first goal came after 42 minutes. Kingston took a great catch, rode two challenges before offloading to Tuohy in space who applied the finish.
That made it a one-point game but Derry responded with 1-4 in seven minutes. Then they stopped playing.
Laois substitute Kieran Farrell stole in for two quick scores but when Derry goalkeeper Conor O'Shea showed great reflexes to deny Laois full forward Conor Meredith a certain goal Laois looked to be spent. But they retained a remarkable sense of calm despite the increasingly desperate situation with Tuohy putting the resulting 45 over the bar.
Kingston then added a free before Tuohy brought matters back to a point in the last minute of normal time with as good a goal Croke Park will witness this year. Again, gathering possession on the left, he cut inside before blasting a shot from 20 yards into the top corner.
Laois were suddenly in complete control while Derry desperately tried to stem the tide. However Laois claimed the next kick-out and Kingston quickly posted a gem of a point.
Afterwards Derry manager Niall Conway conceded his team "had stopped playing for the last 10 minutes", while his Laois counterpart, Eddie Kelly, chirped that his team "had got out of jail".
The opening passages belonged to Derry with Aidan Heron and Declan Mullan particularly prominent and they led 0-10 to 0-4 at the interval.
DERRY:A Warnock; M McKinney, C McWilliams, D Bell; C McKaigue (0-2), JF Bradley, B Henry; J Kielt (0-3, two frees), C O'Boyle; S Cleary, A Heron (0-4), D Mullan (0-3); N Forrester, G McGeehan (0-1), L Moore (1-2, one free). Subs: L Kennedy for S Cleary (35 mins), L Morrow for D Bell (46 mins), P Heaney for C O'Boyle (50 mins), D Heavron for G McGeehan (56 mins).
LAOIS:C O'Shea; R Kehoe, J Mulhare, J O'Connor; K Lillis, C Boyle, Z Tuohy (2-1, 0-1 45); D Lowry, J O'Loughlin; S Ramsbottom, E Kelly (0-1), B Smith; J Doyle, C Meredith (0-2), D Kingston (0-6, three frees). Subs: K Farrell (0-2) for D Lowry (22 mins), K Hyland for J Doyle (54 mins), S Miller for B Smith (59 mins).
Referee:R Hickey (Clare).
