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Its a pity we didnt kill it off, O'Carrolls shot on goal would have finished it but in fairness Kildare did show bottle to win it. I thought the referee gave some shocking calls on both teams throughout the match but by god he gave Laois nothing in the last few minutes of the game but thats not why we lost we lost because we didnt kill them off when we had the chance.

I thought Laois were naive but will learn alot from this match.

Great to get the win, but by God we made hard work of it!  We were much the better team in the first half but the soft goal meant Antrim were closer than they should have been at half time.  Our handling and decision making for much of the second half just wasn't good enough and we let Antrim power back into the game.  As often happens the ref gave Antrim a lot of very dubious calls after they had a man sent off.  Two super finishes from Zane and Roddy sealed the win for us, with Roddy's goal a template for what we have to work towards.  Get him one on one with his marker and he can do that in every game.  That performance will do his confidence the world of good and he could be in line for a big summer.

We have a lot of things to work on however, a few points:

Handpassing was a problem for us today.  Between lads making the wrong runs, lads not comfortable handpassing with their dominant hand, overcooking a hand pass etc.,  numerous times we went from positions where we could have worked scores to giving Antrim possession and conceding scores.

Joe Fitz was left half back.   Why?  He's a born no.5.  At 7, and particularly when receiving short puck outs at 7, he tends to veer into the traffic to get on to his favoured right side.  It makes absolutely no sense to switch him.  He thundered into the game in the last 10 mins and is a super hurler for us but he should remain at right half back.

We are too inclined to always look up the field when in possession.  I'm all for working the ball intelligently and retaining possession, but at this level a split second remaining stationary and someone is on you.  There's a time to pick out a pass and there's a time to be more direct and hit the full forward line.  We don't have the balance quite right yet.

Conceeding silly free's.  Yes the ref was poor, but we need to stop giving away the stupid, lazy free's.  A defender pulled back an Antrim player going though for a goal near the end.  That's ok, it saved a probable goal.  What's not okay is pulling back a lads arm or jersey 50/60/70 yards outs,  9/10 of these free's are converted.  It's just lazy and a total lack of discipline.  Against better teams there's no way we can afford to give them 5 or 6 really soft free's and hope to edge a win.  If a ref is letting that stuff go then work away, but it was clear after 5 mins that the ref was going to blow for everything but we never copped on.

I know it's easy to write all this from the comfort of a chair, but it wouldn't frustrate me if I didn't think we're capable of a lot more.  So many times great work is undone by a simple, unforced error. 

There were also some real positives to take from it:
In the last 5 minutes we went up a gear and produced some super hurling, the game was there to be won by whichever team wanted it more and that was us. 
It's great to have James Walsh back!  Such an intelligent hurler. 
His clubmate Cha is now a main player for us.  Wing forwards who can consistently hit 3 or 4 points a game and win their own ball are rare as hens teeth, and we now have one on both wings.  Hyland didn't score as much as usual but he dominated his wing winning free's and puckouts throughout.  I'd say Kevin Ryan dreads the sight of him at this stage! 
Cahir Healy seems to be getting more comfortable at 3.  He was very solid today as was the full back line in general. 
We were missing Matthew, Butch, Tom Delaney, Neil Foyle and Picky, that's five starters that were nailed on last year to come back into the mix.
PJ Scully looks to be realising the potential we all know he has.

Excellent post and I could not agree more.

I thought Cha was superb and is really becoming a leader. I would worry about the height in our defence ATM, Antrim had some big lads on but some of the bigger lads they had on were poor in the extreme but it wont always be like that. We need Matthew Whelan back for championship. Yesterday was a poor enough performance but as a match it was just about winning it and moving on. I firmly believe this Laois team will improve no end as the ground gets harder and with better conditions will come better hurling.

Special word for Rowland in goals, he made a big mistake for their goal but he showed real composure on a few occasions after that when he could have folded, fair play to him.

Is it true Billy Sheehan is not playing club football for anyone this year? I think we were all under the impression he was joining KIlcruise but that seems wrong now.

Have to give credit where credit is due, how TOF and the lads have turned this league around is nothing short of miraculous. The Kildare game will be tough and they certainly wont want Laois to be the ones to relegate them, of course as a county we would take no pleasure in that......

Begs the question of why they join Killeen? I wonder ...................

Portlaoise finally have a manager from what I hear, Malachy McNulty will be in charge.

I was happy with the performance except for the goals obviously. I think the laois management will have learned a few important lessons from this match and in the long run I feel we will be better for this match. I would expect the Antrim match to be a tight affair and one we have to win.

Going to be tough going to Meath as Meath are a decent team but we are well able to beat them. A big test of us and where we actually stand but as I said previously on here there is nothing between the teams in this division and if we go in with a good tactical plan, as in fairness TOF had last week, and a positive attitude we have every chance of winning.

Jesus PK, would you ever get down off your soapbox about lads who are missing and wont commit, we have what we have, and they deserve more respect than you saying that they are not of inter county quality, (even if you do qualify it by commending their commitment). Btw, who are the full back and 2 half backs you refer to ?

How did I disrespect anyone? If I believe our defence is our weakest link its hardly disrespectful , anyone watching the team would agree. I don't give a toss about lads not committing but I was merely making an observation which from what I hear is the norm on these supporters forums.   I stand over what I said about our defence.

Its great to get a win and see a real performance from these lads but we are certainly not out of the woods yet. I would still be worried for the 2015 season, lets hope this is not a false dawn.

I've always maintained that we have a number of really good players but our weakest players are not up to standard and in reality thats the case for the majority of inter county teams except the top 3 or 4. The fact that we dont have a full deck to deal from as per usual is crippling us from making solid progress.IMO our midfield and forwards are capable competing and providing a platform for victory against most teams and will do damage against anyone but our defence is weak, some hard working  lads in there but we need more quality. McMahon a huge loss. Im not going into lads who wont commit but when I look at it we are missing our best defender, our best full back and 2 best half backs, we cannot expect progress without everybody involved. Its a credit to lads involved already and commitment they give but quality is hard to come by in Laois.

Laois are well able to beat anyone outside of the big boys and we should be aiming to win every match in this division as on any given day there is nothing between the teams. Confidence and desire bred from good management is the difference between winning and losing in this division IMO. I still have my doubts about our mgt but by jaysus it would be great to be proved wrong about them.

Good draw for Portlaoise, to have a quality rival in the first round will definitely get Portlaoise going .I expect Stradbally to be very good this year. All we need is a manager now.....

The Wexford match on Sunday is going to be a real test of Laois, Wexford will of course see it as a soft enough win but I think we can expect more from Laois than we have shown so far . The Antrim win is huge for us and Sunday will give supporters a chance to come out in force and support the team.

As for the team itself Its good to see Cha taking his opportunity and settling in nicely, I still think Healy is wasted at full back and it just a pity Darren Maher hasnt committed. Healy around the middle of the field would be immense.

A bad bad result and We need to cop ourselves on very quickly in advance of the Antrim match. IMO we have a few lads who need a massive kick in the ass , some of our players just seem so lazy at times.

The year is far from lost and hopefully we will pick it up but Antrim will be a test for this perceived new spirit in laois hurling.

Very disappointing result that could easily have been so different. Tough league ahead.