2015 Laois Senior Football

[Giovanni]

Glad to see that we're sticking with the same 15. I think Gareth Dillon has a lot to offer at this level and I hope he has a fine game. If we could pick up some points here, we'd be putting ourselves in a good position. We haven't had a great record against Meath (and Graham Reilly) though so we need to improve again on the last day.

I know it's on telly but with the good weather promised for the weekend, I hope a good crowd will travel. They deserve the support.

[Mooreman]

Well done lads,  a great result against Roscommon, it gives us a fighting chance to survive and makes the rest of the games very interesting.  A win against the Royals on their patch would be a massive result.  We have nothing to fear from this Meath team.  Let's go and fight like dogs for our survival.  Maintaining Division 2 status would be a great achievement considering the start we've had.  The postponement of the Galway game may be the saving of TOF as we were playing with no confidence.  I don't know what happened at training during that period but the result against Roscommon would suggest a few home truths were told and lads got their heads right.  Miss Laoistalk too but this is starting to feel similar.

[on the hop]

at half time, things were looking bad. the wind was picking up and meath appeared to have the speed on our backs. plus i had to listen to the meath lads around me talking about how shite we were and that they were going up to div 1. On the plus side we were winning a huge amount of ball at midfield and niall had a great goal chance. the two earlier points looked to bury us, but after that we really dominated them and could if we had been more ruthless beaten them. the changes made a difference with donie further out and small kingston doing well in the corner. backs really improved timmons and paul begley excelled. the shape of the backs was better also. midfield did great especially JOL and we ended up forcing them to take short kickouts which didn't suit them .noticeable off the ball was that a lot of their players were cramping up and stretching and we seemed far fitter.

one gripe we should have hammered the weak link which was both their corner backs who were cramping very badly. ross got on a lot of ball and did well at times but we should have got a bigger return off the amount of chances we had. it appears that tom shiels has now jumped the queue.

[County Man]

Delighted with the draw in Navan. Well deserved.

Great second half comeback led by John O'Loughlin and Mark Timmons.

Some great points scored as well.

Fantastic team spirit.

[beano]

Great 2nd half. If only they could do it for seventy mins.

Thought Ross was poor and maybe he should have been replaced.

Backs did really well in 2nd half and damian o connor did very well when he came on. Hope Hanrahan's injury isnt too bad.

A couple of things. We need a crowd to travel to Galway the next day. This team is showing tremendous heart and spirit and thats all we look for as supporters! We cant always say that about past Laois teams.

Felt sorry for Dillion been taken off so soon but hopefully he will take it on the chin and improve from this.

[SCFC]

Great result last night and a deserved one too.
Given ourselves a chance of survival now and the Galway game is now a massive one.
Great displays from Kingston, O'Loughlin, Donoher, Timmons.
Good to see Attride coming back to - he has a lot to offer.
It's looking a lot better than it did 8 days ago!

[Teo Lurley]

Great comeback and spirit shown by the team. It was looking very bad early in the second half. O'Loughlin drove them on and Kingston was excellent again like he's been for a long time now. We need him on the 45 but we could do with him inside aswell. Ross seems to have lost confidence with his shooting, he did win a lot of ball in the second half though and won some key frees. Hanrahan was struggling before his injury but O'Connor is not a corner back.
Not to have a go at the lad but I don't think Dillon is inter county stantard, Paul Kingston has probably done enough to earn a start. Boyle's distribution is very good, it's just a pity he lacks pace. We've beaten Galway easily the last 2 times but we were at home and I think they've improved. It's hard to know how many points we need to get safe but 2 wins out of 3 would leave us safe. 1 win probably won't be enough.

[Giovanni]

You have to admire how lads on here know so much about the game that they can conclude that a lad isn't inter-county standard after two half games. If you were to look at Ross's performance yesterday, you might say he's not inter-county standard too and he's been a star for us for over a decade. And then we wonder why lads are not committing to the panel. Will you give the lad a chance...

The first half of the game itself was really pretty poor all round from our point of view. Whereas last week, we were clever and efficient in our play, this week we reverted to silly passes, shots from ridiculous angles, poor handling. We were left wide open on at least 3 or 4 occasions and could easily have conceded 2 or 3 goals. Meath had far more pace than we had and they used it very well.

In the second half, we battled our way back into it through sheer force of will. JOL was brilliant again, as were Timmons, Quigley, Kingston and Boyle who is doing very well in the forwards. The pace of the Meath team was still a problem but luckily our forwards were better at taking their chances and that's what got us the result in the end. All the subs introduced did well (especially Paul Kingston and Tom Shiel) and Damien O Connor was unlucky with that last effort that would have won us the game. Personally, I was glad to see that he had the confidence to go for it.

Again, a poor crowd of Laois supporters in Navan and little hope for any improvement on Sunday next.

[beano]

Speaking of crowd.

Forget about getting a crowd to Galway. The county board need to make a serious effort to get a crowd to the Kildare game. Most of the football clubs border Kildare and with a bit of effort and promotion we should be able to muster a crowd.

[Giovanni]

Fully agree on the crowd for the Kildare match. A bit of promotion of the match doesn't have to be that difficult.

I should have said earlier that I thought Colm Begley also did a fine job on Graham Reilly who has done us several times in the past. Super performance from him too.

[Teo Lurley]

You have to admire how lads on here know so much about the game that they can conclude that a lad isn't inter-county standard after two half games. If you were to look at Ross's performance yesterday, you might say he's not inter-county standard too and he's been a star for us for over a decade. And then we wonder why lads are not committing to the panel. Will you give the lad a chance...

The first half of the game itself was really pretty poor all round from our point of view. Whereas last week, we were clever and efficient in our play, this week we reverted to silly passes, shots from ridiculous angles, poor handling. We were left wide open on at least 3 or 4 occasions and could easily have conceded 2 or 3 goals. Meath had far more pace than we had and they used it very well.

In the second half, we battled our way back into it through sheer force of will. JOL was brilliant again, as were Timmons, Quigley, Kingston and Boyle who is doing very well in the forwards. The pace of the Meath team was still a problem but luckily our forwards were better at taking their chances and that's what got us the result in the end. All the subs introduced did well (especially Paul Kingston and Tom Shiel) and Damien O Connor was unlucky with that last effort that would have won us the game. Personally, I was glad to see that he had the confidence to go for it.

Again, a poor crowd of Laois supporters in Navan and little hope for any improvement on Sunday next.

Just my opinion son. Ross may not have scored much but he got on a lot of ball and won valuable frees. Dillon is probably the 5th best Portlaoise forward, I wish the lad the best and hope he proves me wrong but he hasn't done anything to justify selection yet!
Paul Kingston has looked very impressive, I'm still waiting on the return of Costello. I think the kid has got it! If anyone has watched some division 1 football you can clearly see the standard we're playing against is far behind but this is where we are and we seem to be competitive at this level.

[County Man]

Massive game coming up against Galway.

I have to disagree with the poster who believes Damien O'Connor should have went for the winning point late on in the game against Meath. While Damien had a fine game and has great pace, I feel in this instance he should have carried the ball nearer to goal and maybe have won a free or perhaps have passed the ball on to a scoring forward who may have snatched a win for us.

[Give and Go]

Delighted for O Flaherty. The abuse Laois managers get is shocking. Too many jump on the bandwagon of criticising the manager (whoever he is) when the bigger problems are player withdrawals, clubs who wan the team to do poorly, a poor club championship in which all clubs agree in advance that none of them can beat Portlaoise!
Portlaoise are not the world beaters that their opponents seem to think they are - they have done nothing in Leinster in a long long time and they haven't really any stand out county men.

Plenty of good footballers in that Laois team.

[Giovanni]

You have to admire how lads on here know so much about the game that they can conclude that a lad isn't inter-county standard after two half games. If you were to look at Ross's performance yesterday, you might say he's not inter-county standard too and he's been a star for us for over a decade. And then we wonder why lads are not committing to the panel. Will you give the lad a chance...

The first half of the game itself was really pretty poor all round from our point of view. Whereas last week, we were clever and efficient in our play, this week we reverted to silly passes, shots from ridiculous angles, poor handling. We were left wide open on at least 3 or 4 occasions and could easily have conceded 2 or 3 goals. Meath had far more pace than we had and they used it very well.

In the second half, we battled our way back into it through sheer force of will. JOL was brilliant again, as were Timmons, Quigley, Kingston and Boyle who is doing very well in the forwards. The pace of the Meath team was still a problem but luckily our forwards were better at taking their chances and that's what got us the result in the end. All the subs introduced did well (especially Paul Kingston and Tom Shiel) and Damien O Connor was unlucky with that last effort that would have won us the game. Personally, I was glad to see that he had the confidence to go for it.

Again, a poor crowd of Laois supporters in Navan and little hope for any improvement on Sunday next.

Just my opinion son. Ross may not have scored much but he got on a lot of ball and won valuable frees. Dillon is probably the 5th best Portlaoise forward, I wish the lad the best and hope he proves me wrong but he hasn't done anything to justify selection yet!
Paul Kingston has looked very impressive, I'm still waiting on the return of Costello. I think the kid has got it! If anyone has watched some division 1 football you can clearly see the standard we're playing against is far behind but this is where we are and we seem to be competitive at this level.

Jeez, I wonder who's the 6th best Portlaoise forward? Dillon's been going training and clearly the manager and selectors, who have seen a lot more of him than you have, have seen something in him. From what I understand, he was considered one of Portlaoise's better players last year.  I don't know whether you were at the game but I don't think anyone could conclude that the first half display was down to the performance of Dillon. Having said that, you couldn't disagree that Paul Kingston has looked very good in the last 2 games.

[Teo Lurley]

You not think Bruno, Cahilane, Zach and Rogers are ahead of him? The first half performance wasn't down to him but it's twice in a row he's been taken off early. I just don't think he's strong enough, as I said it's just my opinion and I wish the lad the best. You're just going to have to get over the fact that people are allowed their opinion I'm afraid.