2015 Laois Senior Football

[OTF]

Into the last minute and a point up I thought the worst can happen now is a draw .......Jazus and red for Donie. One disastrous minute but we should have being 3 or 4 up at that point only for terrible decisions near goal.

We'll now we have to get something in Newry next week or correct me if I'm wrong
We need Roscommon to beat Galway and Westmeath.

[portlaoisekid]

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.

[Catch and Kick]

If memory serves me right Kingston has been sent off like this before. Don't know if he was the instigator of this but he got the card....any one have a clear view of what happened?

[Donnellys Hollow]

If memory serves me right Kingston has been sent off like this before. Don't know if he was the instigator of this but he got the card....any one have a clear view of what happened?

Kingston wasn't shy about letting a few of the Kildare players know the score when Laois went ahead. A few of the Kildare players gave it back with interest when we went back ahead and he reacted. Silly stuff on both sides.

Happy to snatch the win last night but I wouldn't be very confident that we will repeat the feat again should we meet in June.

[Giovanni]

Sick after that yesterday.

Overall, I suppose you have to credit Kildare for the way they came back to snatch the game at the end but I don't agree that the better team won yesterday. As someone else said, despite everything, we had the game in our own hands and poor decision-making in front of goal probably cost us the game in the end.

As far as I was concerned, our key men and in particular our midfielders were abused the whole way through the game. The Kildare tactic seemed to be to focus on the man rather than the ball when the ball was on its way into the midfield area. Our lads got no protection at all from the referee and I have to take my hats off to the two of them for holding their discipline in what must have been a really frustrating evening for them.

The same thing goes (to a lesser extent) for Kingston. Although he had fewer sneaky digs to contend with, he was being pulled and dragged the whole game long. I have been following Kingston since the beginnng of his career and of all the Laois players to be accused of aggression and off-the-ball messing, he would be the very last on this list. I often thought that his biggest weakness was that he doesn't show enough physical aggression (compared to the likes of Michael Murphy). I certainly don't ever remember seeing him sent off before (maybe the earlier poster is confusing him with Conor Meredith) and he seemed very surprised to get the red card. I didn't see anything happening but for sure nobody ended up on the deck and nobody got hurt. Maybe Donnelly's Hollow could tell us about the nature of his reaction?? At the same time, it looked at one stage as though Tom Shiels might not escape from the ground with all his limbs. Some of the tackles on him could only be described as an assault for which he wasn't even awarded a free, never mind a punishment for the culprit. It was also clear that the Kildare man fouled the ball in the lead up to the goal.

This, by the way, is the same referee who did such a great job of the All-Ireland u-21 semi final between Cavan and Dublin last year when he robbed Cavan of at least a draw and had to be escorted out of the grounds. How they let people like that continue to referee big matches is beyond me. Anyway, I certainly hope there is some video evidence that exonerates Donie because we desperately need him for the game in Down.

Given the shortage of resources, I thought the backs did very well. Timmons was again masterful and for almost 70 minutes Kildare had no serious chance of a goal. Robbie Kehoe did the sweeping job very well and Colm Begley and Strong were both good again (although Darren had a few wild attempts at scores in the first half when a bit more calmness might have been better). On the down side, we conceded several soft frees again (some of which were very dubious indeed) but nevertheless we have to be careful about that.

The forwards didn't quite click yesterday although you did get the impression that there could be goals in them. Although Niall Donoher had an excellent game in general play, a few crucial misses in the second half cost us. Same for Evan O Carroll. Had a really good game overall but wasn't quite able to finish all his chances clinically - the goal chance in particular wasn't really a goal chance from the angle he was at and it was an opportunity wasted. Conor Boyle sprayed the ball around very well but couldn't get the scoreboard ticking. Ross had another off day. Although Paul Kingston has lost out in 75% of the balls that went into his area, I think it was very harsh to make the change so quickly, especially given the fact that he is only finding his feet at this level - I'm not sure what impact it has on young lads' long-term confidence. Having said that, Tom Shiels really looks like he could turn into a super player - a few things didn't quite work for him but he clearly has what it takes. Overall, I don't think we would have too much to fear from Kildare come the championship.

Although I wouldn't necessarily see them as automatic starters now, it would be really great to have O'Leary, McMahon and Meredith available for the championship squad. I wonder is there any chance of that happening?

[Donnellys Hollow]

Maybe Donnelly's Hollow could tell us about the nature of his reaction??

There didn't appear to be all that much in it from what I saw to be honest. Kildare player didn't make a big deal of it.

[Giovanni]

I didn't see what happened myself but for sure no Kildare player seemed to be making any issue of it (which in fairness was the case all through). JOL swung an arm a bit dangerously at a player behind him in the first half and that player (No. didn't make too much of an issue of that either in fairness to him.

[TomBoy]

A tough loss to take last night, which was made even more sour by the jeering reaction of a few young Kildare supporters sitting behind me. It was a game we could have won but I'd imagine both sets of supporters will be very disappointed by the overall performance of their respective teams. Laois only played football for twenty minutes of the game while Kildare reminded me of the ponderous play of the Northern teams of the last decade, with their constant hand passing back and across the 45m line without any penetration. It was a frustrating game to watch at times.

The goal at the end was a very, very bad goal to concede from a defensive perspective. After O'Carroll missed his goal attempt the forwards were switched off. Kildare took a short kickout and worked it down the field through the hand to open up a one on one goal opportunity. How does this happen? The top teams wouldn't let it happen. They would be cuter. Why did no Laois player opt to bring down the man and maybe take a black card to slow the game down? Why did all the Laois players rush up to tackle the Kildare players only to see the ball handpassed over their head to the newly free man the defender just left? This stuff defies logic. It was all very reminiscent of Timmons last minute goal in the club championship against Portlaoise two years ago.

I don't want to sound negative here but I didn't think our defensive was as solid as people think. The Kildare full forward was very dangerous he won a lot of ball and caused Timmons problems. Although Mark dealt ok with him he certainly was a hand full and our saving grace was that he lacked support on a number of occasions. Our half back line was cut through very easily on numerous occasions in both halves. Cribben and O'Flathery were running at us and they had loads of time on the ball but fortunately for us they did not use it very well. Overlaps were not tracked at all, and this has been a feature throughout the league. In fairness to Robbie Kehoe he did sweep into a lot of space and stop the long kick pass which important in stopping counter attacks.

Up front, Paul K had a bad start but everyone has days like that and he will be back again. No issue with TOF replacing him, at least it shows he is active on the line. His replacement Tom Sheils really impressed me with his ball winning last night. I think he won every ball that came his way and his running power had his marker in trouble on two or three occasions. He is still a little raw at this level and maybe he is slightly naive in possession but he can only improve from here. He had a bad collision with a Kildare player near the end but that looked purely accidental with two lads going all out for the ball.

Quigley caught one of the best kickouts I have ever seen in the lead up to O'Connors point, which was a great score. As someone pointed out, Brody was nearly caught running with the ball twice last night. But in his defence nobody was really looking to take the ball off him so he just took off and tried to start a counter attack on his own. A dangerous tactic for sure.

Didn't see the Kingston incident but it will be difficult to get a result against Down without him. Ross will no doubt be targeted again and scores may be hard to come by in that match. But all is to play for and the lads will be looking forward to it

[Teo Lurley]

It looked like Kildare were going to run away with it in the second half as they were winning every breaking ball at midfield. Obviously this is something we have to work on but the team showed great spirit to come back and get close to victory. This running in to tackle the man and leave your own is obviously something they've been working on in training. The man that rushes in is meant to put pressure on the ball while other lads get back to mark the player he just left. It's a risky tactic, it worked on occasions but sometimes you just shouldn't do it. 1 point up into injury time definitely wasn't a time to do it.
The positives: Timmons again, he was superb. There was a huge amount of quality ball that went in towards his man. He dealt with it very well. Keogh is doing well in the sweeper role. Begley was superb when moved to half forward, I think he's wasted at half back. Shiel looked very dangerous as did O'Carroll at times. Kingston is class, he's vital to us and will be a huge loss next week.
On the red card incident. It wasn't Kingston who was giving the Kildare lads any mouthing after we took the lead. As usual it was Billy Sheehan. I'm not 100% certain but I think it was Sheehan or Shiel who was struck after the Kildare goal went in. Kingston reacted but not too bad, he was calling out to the linesman to tell the referee about the incident. To say his sending off was harsh is an understatement. Probably no video evidence so he wont be getting off.
With Galway winning today it's more likely we'll get relegated. If we lose to Down we have to hope Galway beat Kildare and Roscommon beat Westmeath. Hopefully we can stay up. Progress has been made in recent weeks but obviously we have a lot of work to do before championship time.

[OTF]

There was Laois player on the ground (Donie ?) just after the Kildare goal I didn't see it but assumed this was the incident, he did look surprised but the umpires called it.
The ref was poor Conway seemed to over carry in the lead up to their goal.

Galway wining today is a bad result for us I'd fancy Kildare to beat them next Sunday.
Was Paul Begley injured I felt we could have done with the extra bit of power last night

[Teo Lurley]

It was Billy or one of the other forwards, possibly Shiel who was on the ground. That's what Donie was reacting too. A shocking decision to send him off. Begley was injured I think.

[Catch and Kick]

We can talk all day about negative tactics in the game but it's up to teams to adapt and I think that's a fascinating aspect; I don't like all this hand passing but it's within the rules.
By big beef is refereeing. My God. What is going to be done about the standard of referees. It's too easy dismiss critics as having no respect - sure we would all like to say nothing about are but they are so so bad.
Game after game we see refs giving one side an easy ride and hammering their opponents. then maybe after all the damage is done, after token free are given to balance out the free count. It is shocking.
One minute 4 players surround a player and pulverise him and the ball carrier is penalised for over carrying, the next incident for the opposition results in a free against the tacklers......can't accept this as being ok.
The assessment of referees is the greatest waste of time. The assessors seem to know as little about the game as a man from Mongolia. They are obsessed with presentation, socks up, number of subs warming up, incursions onto the pitch and never pick up on the consistent inconsistencies that occur in a single match! That's  mouthful I know.
I'd agree kingston probably was hard done by and Billy Sheehan may have been he cause of it. He gets under my skin. Chalky White got away with murder last night and should have been sent off but cutely Kildare subbed him before it happened.

[Saint75]

In reality this is a weaker Div 2 than last year. Donegal & Monaghan replaced by Westmeath & Kildare. Also Armagh gone too. We now go into the last game with the possibility of being relegated to Div 3. Things are not looking good for championship now. We'll beat Carlow but after that we will struggle. Hard to blame management as the players are not there. I hope I'm wrong but our best players are getting older and Minor & U21 failures of the last few years mean there are few replacements.

[Giovanni]

We can talk all day about negative tactics in the game but it's up to teams to adapt and I think that's a fascinating aspect; I don't like all this hand passing but it's within the rules.
By big beef is refereeing. My God. What is going to be done about the standard of referees. It's too easy dismiss critics as having no respect - sure we would all like to say nothing about are but they are so so bad.
Game after game we see refs giving one side an easy ride and hammering their opponents. then maybe after all the damage is done, after token free are given to balance out the free count. It is shocking.
One minute 4 players surround a player and pulverise him and the ball carrier is penalised for over carrying, the next incident for the opposition results in a free against the tacklers......can't accept this as being ok.
The assessment of referees is the greatest waste of time. The assessors seem to know as little about the game as a man from Mongolia. They are obsessed with presentation, socks up, number of subs warming up, incursions onto the pitch and never pick up on the consistent inconsistencies that occur in a single match! That's  mouthful I know.
I'd agree kingston probably was hard done by and Billy Sheehan may have been he cause of it. He gets under my skin. Chalky White got away with murder last night and should have been sent off but cutely Kildare subbed him before it happened.

Agree with every word of this. The nature of the game is that the rules are not always easy to interpret but the lack of common sense shown by so many referees is mind-boggling.

[Giovanni]

One more thing. If it was Billy Sheehan's actions that led to the dismissal of Donie Kingston last week, I hope if anything worthwhile comes out of it that the management will finally see that nothing good comes from leering in people's faces or winding people up, particularly when there is nothing to back it up on the pitch. I just hope they take proper note