Leinster Senior Football Championship 2017

[redsetanta]

Wasn't there today but that's a fairly comprehensive victory albeit by goals.

[BallyroanAbu]

Thats telling you wholeheartedly agree with original poster, we won't beat Longford by the way.

I kept my mouth shut in the lead up to this match.

No you didn't. You said we won't beat Longford

I meant in the last couple of days before hand,  either ways it doesn't matter.  I suppose it's a fill-up to those who think all is honky dory.  I do remember it was the same last year after the Dublin game.  Personally wasn't blown away today we got goals at the right time.  Don't think we will be beating Kildare, you all know my thoughts on the manager.   See you after Kildare match.

[Nameless]

Don't respond. That's exactly what he wants, probably a lily living in Laois.

[Unison]

Thats telling you wholeheartedly agree with original poster, we won't beat Longford by the way.

I kept my mouth shut in the lead up to this match.

No you didn't. You said we won't beat Longford

I meant in the last couple of days before hand,  either ways it doesn't matter.  I suppose it's a fill-up to those who think all is honky dory.  I do remember it was the same last year after the Dublin game.  Personally wasn't blown away today we got goals at the right time.  Don't think we will be beating Kildare, you all know my thoughts on the manager.   See you after Kildare match.

It's disappointing when Laois men want to see Laois teams beaten.

[SCFC]

Thats telling you wholeheartedly agree with original poster, we won't beat Longford by the way.

I kept my mouth shut in the lead up to this match.

No you didn't. You said we won't beat Longford

I meant in the last couple of days before hand,  either ways it doesn't matter.  I suppose it's a fill-up to those who think all is honky dory.  I do remember it was the same last year after the Dublin game.  Personally wasn't blown away today we got goals at the right time.  Don't think we will be beating Kildare, you all know my thoughts on the manager.   See you after Kildare match.

I doubt if anyone expects us to beat Kildare. You, on the other hand, seem to hope we get hammered. Each to their own I suppose.

[BallyroanAbu]

Why fool ourselves we have been doing it for awhile now.  If knocking around the early rounds of Leinster is where you want to be by all means keep going the way we are.  Personally I feel this county is capable of a lot more.   Always the same here getting a nothing result, everything is ok = do nothing for another year.  I am sick of limping along we have been doing it for years  this county had some aspirations.  Enjoy the trip to Ruislip sure it will be great crack for me that is some sickener.

[County Man]

Well done Laois on a fine win today.

Much improved fitness levels, good accuracy and some great goals.

Great to see Eoin Buggie, James Kelly and Sean Moore get their championships debuts.

4-11 from play is pretty impressive. Longford are no pushovers.

Much better discipline as well. A good range of scorers today.

Obviously Kildare will be a big step up but we hopefully will give it a good rattle.

Laois ABU

[ollie12]

Great result. 4-11 from play.  11 different scorers.  A few championship debuts. A few lads getting a good 70 minutes of championship fitness after injuries. Dominated midfield. Looked fitter and sharper-All positives.  Looked like we  could be cut open at the back. No defensive plan. Another injury to attride-all negatives. Now for kildare . Yes kildare will be favourites and rightly so but we can give them enough of it if we get going early and put them on the back foot. In order to get a result we'll have to get a defensive plan in place or else you could see kildare getting 20+ scores. Hopefully a championship match will stand to us and kildare will be a bit rusty.  Looking forward to it. Well done to the panel and management today.

[Tony]

Huge step up compared to the league today. Night and day difference. As a lot of people said, the injuries made a huge difference in the league. If we had that team today in the League we'd have done a lot better in the league. I don't think anyone can suggest otherwise and keep a straight face.

I still think we'll be 6-8 points off Kildare, as, in my opinion, we're still carrying 4-5 passengers. No offence to these players, they're trying hard, but they don't have the ability.

Very encouraging performance though overall and some excellent individual performances. I think I was proven correct : the squad is hungry and unifed. As I said, there are always one or two unhappy, so I believe Town1980 was referring to a small couple rather than a widespread issue. It would be nice of him to say that but I guess he likes stirring  . We all know who could be unhappy about not being selected etc. Everyone else on that panel was hungry today and it showed. Of course we're not world beaters but we look relatively fit, committed and we'll give it our best all day.

As always, what more can we ask?

Anyway, top performers for me today:

BRODY - 8. Solid 'keeper as always. Some courageous runs (and you can hear everyone holding their breath when he runs like that) but excellent, accurate kick outs. Made a couple of good saves and was marshalling the defence throughout.

D. KINGSTON - 9. Donie is class enough to be on any panel in the country. He showed great attitude today and maturity. Took his goal very well and was a thorn for Longford all day.

B. QUIGLEY - 8 With the advent of the mark, Brendan is a real asset for Laois, more than ever. Great fielder of the ball and is showing real maturity in terms of his discipline. There was a time you could look at Brendan the wrong way and he'd see red. Now he's working hard, getting in good positions, good defensively and he was head an shoulders above anyone at midfield today.

JOL - 8 John was excellent today, even from when he was in the FF line. Constantly showing for the ball and some warrior. Invaluable.

BEGLEY - 8 Fantastic on and off the ball, a real athlete. Gives great instruction and is a real leader. Took control of the match at important times today. Scored a good point at an important time.

Some notable mentions include Dennis Booth who looked assured, Attride who was tigerish until he got injured and Paul Kingston who got a very important 2-1 from play.

All in all, a very good day at the office. Longford aren't a bad team. We beat them by 11 points. Not saying we're winning Leinsters and we've a lot of defensive work to do (tracking runners / discipline in the tackle / positioning, but days like today are to be enjoyed in Laois and well done to all involved.

[Don Draper]

Thats telling you wholeheartedly agree with original poster, we won't beat Longford by the way.

I kept my mouth shut in the lead up to this match.

No you didn't. You said we won't beat Longford

I meant in the last couple of days before hand,  either ways it doesn't matter.  I suppose it's a fill-up to those who think all is honky dory.  I do remember it was the same last year after the Dublin game.  Personally wasn't blown away today we got goals at the right time.  Don't think we will be beating Kildare, you all know my thoughts on the manager.   See you after Kildare match.

It's disappointing when Laois men want to see Laois teams beaten.

We're our own worst enemies sometimes.

[town1980]

Tony I agree with your post whole heartedly

[Keyser Söze]

Good win, good score, good spread of scorers.

All I ever looked for from a well resourced management was that Laois would look fit, be disciplined and beat teams they should be beating- Longford being in that category.
That looks to have happened.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Great win and for once I thought our defending was fairly good. We didn't stand off lads as much as we have been and met some lads full on when they came running at us and we stood our ground well.

One thing I noticed today which has improved the team is the quality of ball to the full forward line, it was mostly into the space in front of lads rather than straight down on top of them and we made great use of that possession throughout the game. Donie tends to give off ball quicker when Paul is on the team as he tends to overplay it normally and loses a lot of ball. That is a major positive and it created a lot of chances for us today.

On the negative side we coughed up a big lead while playing with a strong breeze and a few heads were going down until we got those two goals before half time. We don't seem to be able to hold on to a lead and letting Longford back into it was sometimes down to silly, lazy play and giving the ball away too easily.

Brody will get caught soon coming out like that and there really is no need for him to be out around the midfield area, ok, come out and help out the defence if they need you but don't forget what you primary duty is. He got dispossessed on one occasion in the second half and it could have been very embarrassing only the referee gave him a free for a foul that some ref's wouldn't give.

Overall it was great to see the spread of scores we got and our play looked sharp and decisive. Our defending was good and we didn't let them walk through us as we had been doing previously. Probably wont be good enough for Kildare but it wont be for lack of effort from these guys..

On another note how is it that O'Moore park is big enough to hold Dublin v Carlow this year when it was NOT big enough to hold Dublin v Laois last year .. ?

[Giovanni]

It's quite a long time since we've given a half-decent team a good trimming so it was very satisfying to see that performance yesterday. Longford are not a bad team and we dealt with them very well.

The forward play in particular was exceptionally good and the goals were brilliantly worked (especially Farrell's). Again, it's been a while since we've seen that quality going forward. Donie was very good - Gilleran is really a fine full-back but he wasn't able to cope at all. Great to see.  The midfield was very strong too and Quigley's distribution was very good. Begley was also superb, especially in the second half.

I thought the full-back line looked shaky enough at times, especially in the first half, and I didn't think Damien O Connor looked fit.

Although he played well enough, I'm not sure how fit Evan is either. Hard to know how much the injury took out of all these lads.

Anyway, it was a great result and a very good performance. Well done to all.

[Tony]

For those who missed the match itself or the Sunday Game on TV last night, here's a quick video recap on the match :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr7AcBzfqpA&t=1s&spfreload=10