The Laois senior footballers continued their winning start to 2024 as they defeated London in O’Moore Park last night.
Below, we will take a more detailed look at how the match unfolded in our talking points.
1 – Man of the match
Following this nine point win, there are several contenders for this award this time.
Seamus Lacey and Mark Timmons were solid in defence with Sean O’Flynn, who had to shuffle back to corner back at short notice following injury to James Kelly, excelling again.
Conor Heffernan ruled the skies in midfield while Kevin Swayne’s workrate which saw him made countless tackles and interceptions, was also rewarded with a goal.
But we have gone for O’Dempsey’s forward Mark Barry. He worked tirelessly all game and was accurate in front of goal with five points.
His workrate was exemplified by Laois’s first goal. Firstly, he did extremely well to force a long ball that was going wide out for a line ball.
London looked to go back to keeper Andrew Walsh but Barry intercepted it and fed Evan O’Carroll who buried it past a scrambling defence and into the net.
2 – First half struggles
While the end result was pleasing, manager Justin McNulty spoke afterwards about being disappointed with aspects of their performance.
One would assume he was speaking about the first half where Laois, aided by a strong wind, dominated possession but failed to turn it into many scores.
London brought all 15 of their players into their own 45 and frustrated Laois who kept running down blind alleys and being turned over.
3 – Second half improvement
Justin McNulty and his management team deserve a lot of credit for how they seemed to rectify this as when the second half resumed, Laois played differently.
Their wide players hugged the sideline and that allowed Laois to draw London out of their defensive shape and poke holes in it which led to scores.
When Kevin Swayne punched in their second goal after 50 minutes, the contest was over.
4 – Injuries
Laois have been fortunate those far this season with injuries but are now down three players.
Crettyard’s Ciaran Burke looks the most serious as he had to be carried from the field after 16 minutes following a challenge from Michael Miller and brought to hospital for an x-ray on his ankle.
Manager McNulty confirmed afterwards that thankfully nothing is broken but Burke is badly swollen and left in a boot – with ligament damage of some sort the most likely diagnosis.
Before all of that, Laois lost corner back James Kelly in the warm up – with manager McNulty saying that the St Joseph’s man felt something in his quad.
While Courtwood’s Niall Dunne, who had started every game up to now at centre forward, missed out completely after picking up a knock on his knee.
5 – Are Laois promoted?
The simple answer is no but the reality is that it is probably 99% certain that they are.
Laois face Leitrim and Waterford in their final two games and if they pick up a point from either of them, they cannot be caught.
But with the way the remaining fixtures go, Laois could probably lose both and still go up with 10 points as it is unlikely that two other teams will reach the same tally.
6 – Results elsewhere
There was one other Division 4 game last night and it was a good one for Laois as Wexford defeated Carlow by 1-14 to 1-7.
That means Laois are top on 10 with Leitrim, Carlow and Wexford all second on 6. Longford are next with 4 while Tipperary have 3.
Longford and Leitrim meet tomorrow with Longford needing to win to have any chance of promotion while Tipperary will be expected to beat Waterford.
7 – What happens next?
Laois now have a weekend off before they return to action on March 16 at home to Leitrim.
SEE ALSO – NFL Division 4: Five from five as strong second half sees Laois put London to the sword
