Fiachra C Fennell was very impressive this afternoon, lining out at full-back at the heart of a Laois defence that was rock solid in their local derby clash with Kildare.
Joe McDonagh Cup
Laois 1-23 Kildare 0-11
By Kevin Egan at Laois Hire O’Moore Park
Laois came through what can only be described as a lacklustre local derby clash with Kildare this afternoon in Portlaoise, largely thanks to a strong ten-minute spell just before half-time that saw them move nine-points clear of a Kildare side that never got going at the top end of the field.
It was probably unsurprising that this Joe McDonagh Cup clash took time to fire, since neither of the two protagonists arrived at Laois Hire O’Moore Park in particularly good form.
While Kildare were one of the success stories of the Spring, taking nine points from five Allianz League games en route to the Division 2A final, they’ve followed that up with four defeats on the spin, and no matter what they did today, relegation would be on the table in their final round clash with Down at Hawkfield next week.
Laois remain very much in the hunt for a place in the Joe McDonagh Cup final, albeit their fate is not entirely in their own hands, but one win in nine competitive starts this year prior to today is not what new manager Willie Maher would have hoped for either in advance of this contest.
Yet even measured by that benchmark, it would be hard to describe the opening 25 minutes of this game as anything other than disjointed, error-ridden, and disappointing to supporters of both counties. Both sides attempted to move the ball through the lines and retain possession, but a combination of heavy rain and heavy touches meant that it didn’t go particularly well, and by the time a third of this game was played, just seven points were on the board; just one of those from play, an instinctive strike from 40 metres from Cian Boran.
Defensively, Laois were very strong, and that was key to their 0-5 to 0-2 lead at that stage, but in the ten minutes before half-time, they finally began to find some attacking form.
Veteran Ross King kickstarted things with the first of his five points from play, whipped over from 60 metres out. Fiachra C Fennell set up another for Stephen Maher, Stephen Bergin snapped one from the right corner to make it 0-9 to 0-3, and then a quickfire 1-1 from Tomás Keyes before half-time was effectively fatal to Kildare’s chances of mounting a comeback in the second half.
The sun came out during the interval and perhaps in keeping with that, there were bright spots for both teams, who each face into hugely important contests next weekend. Cian Boran and Killian Harrington picked off some good scores for Kildare, while on the Laois side, there was no doubting the star of the show.
Ross King’s deployment at midfield has been a real bright spot for the O’Moore County this year and he lit up O’Moore Park with some gorgeous strikes, before their full-forward unit finally found some form late on, with Martin Phelan (two), Stephen Bergin and substitute James Duggan (two) all finding their range, staking a claim for inclusion in advance of what’s likely to be a thrilling and very significant trip to Austin Stack Park to take on Kerry next weekend.
Scorers for Laois: Stephen Maher 0-10 (0-8f, 0-1 65), Ross King 0-5, Tomás Keyes 1-1, Stephen Bergin 0-2, Martin Phelan 0-2, James Duggan 0-2, Jack Kelly 0-1.
Scorers for Kildare: David Qualter 0-6 (0-5f), Cian Boran 0-3, Declan Flaherty 0-1, Killian Harrington 0-1.
Laois: Enda Rowland; Donnchadh Hartnett, Fiachra C Fennell, Ian Shanahan; Ryan Mullaney, Pádraig Delaney, Jack Kelly; Aidan Corby, Ross King; Patrick Purcell, Stephen Maher, James Keyes; Stephen Bergin, Martin Phelan, Tomás Keyes.
Subs: John Lennon for J Keyes (56), James Duggan for Bergin (56), Gearóid Lynch for Mullaney (56), Pádraic Dunne for Delaney (61), Liam Senior for King (66).
Kildare: Paddy McKenna; Cormac Byrne, Simon Leacy, Niall Ó Muineacháin; Drew Costello, Rian Boran, Alan Goss; Seán Christianseen, Brian Byrne; Cian Boran, Mark Delaney, Johnny Byrne; Declan Flaherty, Paul Dolan, David Qualter.
Subs: Killian Harrington for Flaherty (39), Richie Hogan for Leacy (52), Frank Bass for C Boran (56), Michael Hogan for Christianseen (63), Seán Whelan for Delaney (66), Harry Carroll for Costello (70, temp).
Referee: Patrick Murphy (Carlow).
