Senior Football Championship 2015

[Spillane]

Round 3 gets underway tonight with Crettyard vs MountMellick and Ballyroan Abbey vs Graiguecullen.
Both town teams are favourite but I wouldn't write off both crettyard and Ballyroan. Graigue and MM are "typical town teams", they can be irresistible or they can awful. Much relies on the first 20 mins of both games to see if they will be blow out or a competitive battle.

Tomorrow night, you have the stand out game between Port and Arles Kilcruise. Again Port fit the "typical town team" mould as evident in the contrast between both games against Stradbally. While Arles were good against neighbours Killeen only for some spectacular saves from Leigh they could be already through to a quarter final. Going with Kilcruise by 2.

Emo v Killeshin. Going to give the nod to the sash! Think they are a better team than they showed against portlaoise! Saying this if it comes down to a dogfight Emo might have more battle in them. Killeshin by 4

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Tonight in O'Moore Park.


Mountmellick v Crettyard:  18:30                      Ref:  Eddie Kinsella

Ballyroan Abbey v Graiguecullen:  20:00          Ref:  Joe Brennan




Should be two interesting games, Mountmellick v Crettyard is a hard one to call, Cretty looked good at times in their last game and if they can keep that momentum going its their game to lose. I go for Crettyard by a small margin in this one.

Graiguecullen should have enough to see off Ballyroan in the second game but as usual with them you don't know what you're going to get. They have some good players but to get the best out of them on match day is always a problem.  Its Graiguecullen for me in this one.

[Tony]

Mountmellick / Grague double for me.

[BallyroanAbu]

Maybe I should not be commenting at this stage but "sick"  thought we had a right chance of pulling off an upset.   Funny enough we had a decent year.  Improved alot from last year if we could do the same next year 1/4 or Semi Final.  We have come up short our aim was 1/4. But 8 Under 21 4 Under 18 happy enough.  Gavin Tynan was a star for us this year.  But how in gods name Mick Lillis could overlook Conor Brennan defies logic.  He is minor again next year but he is all over a county player down the line.  I might be a keyboard warrior but only a sub on Laois minor team?

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Two enjoyable games last night with plenty of skill and passion from all teams involved. Mountmellick had a great start with two early goals and looked all over winners from then till half time even tho' Cretty never gave up.
Evan O'Carroll really got into the game in the second half and started to run at Mountmellick and it paid off as all they could do to stop him was foul and the deadly accurate Cormac Murphy punished most of those by slotting frees over from all angles.
The second half was all Crettyard and they missed a few chances to wrap it up but it ended in a draw.

The second game was better quality and Ballyroan got off to a great start and were five points to two ahead and playing great football. Then a high ball into the square by Barry Brennan was brilliantly met with the fist by Arron Forbes and into the net to level the game. In the second half Ballyroan went three points ahead when another long ball in was misjudged by the keeper, slipped through his hands and into the net. It was unfortunate for them but Graiguecullen then started to dominate around midfield with the introduction of Birdy Hand at midfield.

Ballyroan then lost Tierney to a black card after a dirty foul on O'Reilly but they continued to battle on and Conor Brennan who played very well throughout the game grabbed a few good points.  Graiguecullen were really up for it now and some great points by Barry Brennan and a whopper of a score from Aaron Forbes from 50 meters sealed the victory for them.

[Hospital Pass]

Only seen the last 10 minutes of Crettyard v Mountmellick. A half 6 throw in is hardly ideal for players or supporters. Poor crowd in for the first game id guess. From what I did see of that game id wonder how Crettyard were behind, they were dominant in all areas at that stage and missed some very score-able opportunities to win it.
The Ballyroan v Graigue game was very enjoyable until the rain came bucketing down midway trough the second half. Ballyroan will fell hard done by after conceding 2 very soft goals. The second in particular you might see more commonly at an under 12 or 14 game.
This black card is really turning farcical in my opinion. Joe brennan last night gave 2 black cards for late tackles but when a third late tackle came in from young forbes he gave him yellow. At least be consistent in the calls.
Graigue could be a match for most teams, with Brennan, Forbes and especially Timmons hitting form.
Looking forward to tonight's game.       

[OTF]

I hardly ever get to club games anymore and depend on these reports to keep up to date with whats going on.
Its being a long time since I've read a good report about a good club  game in Laois.... could thing be looking up

[redsetanta]

Arles beat Port by 2-08 to 0-10.

Port missed a penalty 10 mins into second half when Arles were 07 - 05 up. Soon after Chris Conway got a goal. Port brought it back to within a point or so but Arles scored a second goal.

So Arles head into quarters.

[SCFC]

Anyone at Emo v Killeshin? Heard Killeshin were very poor but it's a great year for Emo now no matter what else happens.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Killeshin: 0-7 
Emo:       2-9

Didn't hear much about it but seemingly it was a poor enough game.



Laois SFC Quarter Finals:


Arles Killeen v Graiguecullen

Portlaoise v Crettyard/Mountmellick

The Heath v Arles Kilcruise

Emo v St Joseph's

[From the Terrace]

Arles Killeen, Portlaoise, Kilcruise after replay & Josephs. Still hard to see past Portlaoise would not like killeen to win it with all there transfer activities.

[Shapes Ex Laoistalk]

Crettyard and Mountmellick drew again tonight. Anybody at it? Following on Twitter and it seemed a late Evan O'Carroll goal forced extra time and then Cretty came back again from behind in that to force a second replay.

With the Quarters due next week, it will be interesting to see what happens fixture wise now.

[Hospital Pass]

Crettyard and Mountmellick drew again tonight. Anybody at it? Following on Twitter and it seemed a late Evan O'Carroll goal forced extra time and then Cretty came back again from behind in that to force a second replay.

With the Quarters due next week, it will be interesting to see what happens fixture wise now.

Very poor game of football last night. 2 very limited teams. The free taking on both sides was the saving grace in the game. Coss missed a penalty for mountmellick after half time that would have been a hammer blow to Crettyard.
Mountmellick were 3 ahead in injury time when the ball was lobbed into the square, a couple of mountmellick players fumbled the ball allowing a goal.
Crettyard have to be the most dogged team in the championship. fair play to them. they never lie down. Eoin George and Evan O Carroll were the best players on show from open play.
Portlaoise will ease into a semi final on this evidence.

[Hospital Pass]

Lads I don't like doing this because it is a thankless job but i think it has to be said now. The refereeing standard in the county is a at a very poor standard. We have 2 top referees and rarely use them.
Last nights referee was 30-40 yards away from the play for most of the game, made some calls that an RTE comedy sketch show would have been proud of and was booed off by both sets of supporters.
If it means stumping up an extra few quid to attract some new blood then so be it.

[Unlaoised]

Lads I don't like doing this because it is a thankless job but i think it has to be said now. The refereeing standard in the county is a at a very poor standard. We have 2 top referees and rarely use them.
Last nights referee was 30-40 yards away from the play for most of the game, made some calls that an RTE comedy sketch show would have been proud of and was booed off by both sets of supporters.
If it means stumping up an extra few quid to attract some new blood then so be it.

I agree I have seen two terrible displays this year now By SM in the Ballyfin Joes game and this by VD in this game some of the calls were just hard to stomach for anyone watching neutral or other...They are just not up to it!