Electric Ireland Minor Football Championship Quarter-Final

**Galway 3-10 Laois 0-12         **

By Kevin Egan at O’Connor Park

The old adage of goals win games was never more apt than this afternoon at O’Connor Park in Tullamore as Galway eased past Laois in their All Ireland minor football championship quarter-final, despite the fact that the midlanders were more than a match for their Connacht opponents in several facets of general play.

Laois controlled the vast majority of kickouts and enjoyed plenty of primary possession, they created far more chances, both for points and goals, but they simply couldn’t match the clinical finishing of the Galway inside forwards.

Perhaps the most glaring indicator of how the tie played out was the fact that the man of the match by a country mile was Galway goalkeeper Cormac Haslam, who crowned a fantastic individual display with a penalty save late in the contest. He denied Laois on three other occasions and once was bailed out by a goal-line clearance from full back Seán Mulkerrin, while Laois also contributed to their own downfall by pulling three shots wide of the target from inside the large square.

The wind favoured the Tribesmen in the first half and they needed it too as Laois dominated the early kickout battles.

Space was at a premium at the Arden Road end of the ground in front of Haslam’s goal and when Laois did win the ball, they racked up the wides (6) and shots dropped short (4) in a half where they raised just two white flags.

At the other end of the field, Galway supporters could have been forgiven for thinking that they were watching their free scoring seniors in action. Damien Comer’s power and directness was mirrored by Robert Finnerty, Gary Sice’s tendency to pull off the spectacular was matched by Evan Murphy, Desmond Conneely turned and ran with the freedom and pace of a young Danny Cummins, and between these three players they tore Laois to shreds.

The first nine kickouts of the game were won by Laois – but the next three went to Galway, resulting in 2-1. Evan Murphy scored the first after being set up by Finnerty, with the two men switching roles for the second after a good catch from Ross Murphy.

A black card ended Ross McGrath’s involvement following a foul on Conneely.

A 2-6 to 0-2 half time lead was substantial and while Laois had the wind to come, they needed to start hitting the target and there was no sign of that happening. Two Diarmuid Whelan frees was all they racked up in 10 minutes of dominance and in a mirror image of the first half, Galway’s first two attacks yielded points.

Two more Laois goal chances were squandered, one of which was a toe poke from just six yards out, but when Galway got the chance to wrap things up, they didn’t waste it.

A beautiful cross field pass from Robert Finnerty was collected and finished by Ryan Forde to stretch the lead out to 13 points and while Laois kept battling away, to their immense credit, bridging that gap was far beyond them.

Scorers for Galway: E Murphy and R Finnerty (0-1f) 1-3 each, D Conneely 0-4, R Forde 1-0.

**Scorers for Laois: **D Whelan 0-7 (7fs), A Deering 0-2, F Crowley, J Kelly and L Davis 0-1 each.

**Galway:  **C Haslam; E Deeley, S Mulkerrin, F Garvey; A Quirke, E McDonagh, L Kenny; R Murphy, S Raftery; F Ó’ Laoi, E Murphy, R Forde; R Cunningham, D Conneely, R Finnerty. 

Subs: J Maher for Cunningham (35), S Thornton for Kenny (41), L Boyle for Deeley (53), M Kerrigan for Murphy (56), J Gavin for Ó’Laoi (59).

**Laois: **R McGrath; D Bennett, J Kelly, R Hitchcock; S Bolger, S Byrne, J O’Connor; R Tyrell, M Connolly; F Crowley, A Deering, C Comerford; A Kinsella, J Kavanagh, D Whelan.   

**Subs: **D Phelan for McGrath (24 – bc), J Kelly for Kinsella (ht), D Feane for Bolger (43 – bc), L Davis for Comerford (43), E Lowry for Kavanagh (43).

**Referee: **A Devine (Westmeath).