Sport

Laois take upper hand

Laois 2-13 Dublin 1-10: For Laois, this victory at a sparsely-attended Parnell Park on Saturday represented their first points…

Mon Mar 21 2005 - 00:00

Laois 2-13 Dublin 1-10: For Laois, this victory at a sparsely-attended Parnell Park on Saturday represented their first points of the campaign. On the day they looked compact in defence and were, when needed, able to open Dublin up to good effect.

Their game with Galway next weekend, as Laois manager Paudie Butler pointed out, presents them with a "shocking assignment". But this win may be enough to keep Laois in Division One for another year.

The home side began well enough with Magnus Breathnach, one of two new faces in the full-forward line, pointing off his left-hand side in the first minute.

David Curtin added a free but, despite a solid enough display from the full-back division, Dublin saw their lead wiped out soon afterwards following back-to-back points from James Young and a Robert Jones goal midway through the first half.

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It left Dublin playing catch up for the rest of the game but they reduced the arrears coming up to the interval through more scores from Breathnach and Curtin.

Dublin then saw their opponents rattle off three unanswered points which left the half-time score reading 1-7 to 0-6 to Laois.

The second half saw Liam Tynan relocate from the half-forward line to full forward in a move that would see him score a goal on 53 minutes.

Dublin countered with a cracking goal from Emmett Carroll and another Curtin point before Laois rounded things off with points from Young and Cathal Brophy.

LAOIS: P Mullaney; B Campion, P Cuddy, M McEvoy; J Fitzpatrick, S Dwyer, P Mahon; J Young (0-5, three frees, one 65), J Walsh; C Coonan, J Rowney (0-2), L Tynan (1-1); R Jones (1-1), M Rooney (0-1), D Culleton. Subs: E Jackman (0-2) for Jones (half-time), D Rooney for M Rooney (50 mins), J Delaney for Coonan (57 mins), C Brophy (0-1) for Tynan (65 mins), C Clear for Delaney (71 mins).

DUBLIN: G Maguire; G O'Meara, S Daly, T Russell; C Billings, S O'Shea, G Bennett; C Meehan, S Hiney; D Curtin (0-7; four frees, one 65), K Elliott, F Chambers; E Carroll (1-1), M Breathnach (0-2), A McCrabbe. Subs: E Moran for Elliott (45 mins), D Brennan for McCrabbe (45 mins), T Sweeney for Meehan (53 mins), P Bergin for Billings, yellow card (54 mins).

YELLOW CARDS: Dublin: Billings (54 mins).

Referee: T McIntyre (Antrim).