2015 Laois Senior Football

[Unlaoised]

Kingston was unlucky he just pushed the man away from standing over O'Carroll who looked like he got raked with studs in the face...

Will Donie miss the Carlow game aswell or whats the rule?

Laois played great football for 15 minutes on saturday night it was nearly enough to beat a very poor Kildare team...

Very Naive not to foul in the build up to the Kildare goal then again their player did take 8 steps with the ball the ref was about to blow had the whistle up to his lips and bottled it!

[Heshs Umpire]

Have to agree with one thing – we are getting really tight for backs. Apart from the 6 that started Saturday night, we have Paul Begley and Attride and Conor Boyle could also play in defence.

It's a disaster how many backs have pulled off the panel or not committed at all over the past year or two. O'Leary, McMahon, Denis Booth, Healy, Lillis.

Jesus, we could badly do with two or three of those lads.

[Teo Lurley]

If Timmons got injured we'd be in big trouble. At this stage if any of them got injured we'd be in trouble. I have to say though that we need to get Colm Begley out of there. He's doing well but he can influence the game much more in a roving half forward role. With Kingston gone for the Down match we have to move him forward. Team I'd pick for championship at this stage:

Brody
Begley
Timmons
Keogh
Strong
Attride
O'Connor
Quigley
O'Loughlin
Donagher
Kingston
Begley
Munnelly
O'Carroll
Kingston/Shiel

Keogh has been doing really well at 6 but he's more of a corner back than any of the others. It'll be interesting to see how we get on without Kingston on Sunday. He's been the main man all throughout the league so it's time for someone else to step up.

[Thewildcat]

Still sick after the defeat on Saturday. Kildare fans do seem to have a superiority complex when it comes to playing Laois. Its always been the case for as long as I remember. Should the teams meet again on June 6th if we manage to overcome Carlow, this defeat will spur the Laois team on hugely.

Positives on the night: Mark Timmons was outstanding. If he gets injured, we're in big trouble. Tom Shiel had a great game when he came on and looks to have great potential. Donie Kingston would make any team in the country.

Donie is a huge loss for the game against Down. Hopefully we can get a result there. We deserve to stay in this division.

There isn't a lot in at the minute  if we meet it's a 50/50 game.
As regards their supporters,very like the Dubs they have little knowledge of the game this superiority is in their heads, prior to 97 we used beat them like a drum.

what ever about kildare little knowledge, but the Dub's who have 22 all irelands isn't it, and one of the best supported teams in the country, and yes outside of Dublin to i have been at matches where they out number the home support let it be in portlaoise, tullamore, Navan, or Newbridge, as kildare prior 97 could you not say the same about laois Micko 03.

[Heshs Umpire]

It'll be interesting to see who replaces Kingston on Sunday.
The experience of Sheehan maybe? I wouldn't be his biggest fan but he might be the best option to start with.
Huge task to get something from Newry without Donie. I think we'll be relying on results elsewhere going our way.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

It's all getting very complicated in this division heading into the last games this weekend.



As things stand:

No team in the second tier is certain of what situation they will be in by 4pm on Sunday afternoon.

Not one team is guaranteed a place in the bottom two or the top two going into the final round of fixtures.

Down top the Division on eight points but Roscommon, Meath or Cavan or both (though unlikely) and Galway could go through.

If Down beat Laois in Newry, the second promotion place will almost certainly be decided by points difference.

Meath have a +14 points difference and home advantage against Cavan but if Roscommon beat Westmeath, they will be promoted because they beat  Meath at Dr Hyde Park earlier in the league and the Royals will then be hoping for Laois to beat Down.

If two teams finish level on points, it's decided by the head-to-head result. If three teams are level on points, it reverts to points difference.

In the relegation battle, Westmeath and Kildare must win to have any chance of avoiding the drop.

Westmeath's -22 scoring difference means they will most likely need to beat Roscommon and hope Kildare and Laois are beaten.

Kildare need to beat Galway by at least four points and hope either Laois or Westmeath lose. They could get away with a draw but only if Laois lose by at least seven in Newry.

A draw will be enough for Laois to be safe, while a draw or a defeat to Kildare by three or less will keep Galway in the Division.

It is going to be quite a scramble for survival.

Fixtures (all games to be played at 3pm):

Down v Laois; Galway v Kildare; Meath v Cavan; Westmeath v Roscommon

[Target Man]

best team won on sat, we only really had the better of it for maybe 15 mins. That said, we maybe could have snuck it late on, Kildares lack of confidence really showed when we got the goal.

Think some of the praise been given to Timmons is a little ott. He did ok given the quality of ball kicked in to his opponent but I thought their 14 was effective and important for them and won nearly every ball kicked in. Attride struggled on Smith, thought switching him and Robbie would have made a lot of sense. Robbie for me is not a number 6, he did ok on ball but given his brief seemed to be sitting back in front of the full back line Kildare still managed to get a lot of quality ball into inside forwards.

Midfield we were beaten in which is disappointing since we are as good as any pairing out there on paper. O'Loughlin was not as effective carrying as he usually is and Quigley was very quiet. Kildare also worked the ball through hands through our midfield and half back line too easily at times

Up front Donie  Kingston was excellent, on this form there are few better, I'd like to see him play closer to goal if at all possible. O'Carroll good too, think he took the wrong option though going for goal late on, if he takes a point and we go two up we prob win game imo. Ross was poor , thought Billy should have been brought in earlier, playing 3 inside into that wind was a big mistake tactically. Paul Kingston possibly slightly hard done by, but he failed to win at least 5 balls that went into him. Shiel did well, thought we didn't get support to our inside forwards quickly enough at times, which lead to turnovers

Down will be a tough task, especially away without Kingston, but we have shown good spirit lately and should be there abouts. Btw who is on the panel other than 26 named for last Sat? Couldn't think of any myself, I'm sure there must be a few more involved

[Unlaoised]

Sunday will be difficult but not impossible...


Maybe moving John O'Loughlin to centre forward could be an option.

He was very quiet on Saturday night and looked out of sorts but if giving the ball closer to goals he has a proven scoring record of goals and points...

Finn is an Option for Midfield with Quigley as is Darren Strong both are very fit men and could cover the ground.

Attride could come in for strong at right half back.Think hanrahan deserves another chance at corner back.he was going well there before he got injured in Meath.

People will right us off but these lads have shown already that they love been against the odds...

[Giovanni]

My team for Sunday would be:

1. Brody
2. Begley (if fit)
3. Timmons
4. Kehoe
5. Strong
6. Hanrahan (if fit, switching with Robbie depending on matchups) or Attride
7. Begley
8. Quigley
9. JOL
10. Donoher
11. Boyle
12. O' Carroll
13. Ross
14. Finn
15. Shiels

[ILikeStrawberryJam]

Replacing donie with finn giovanni jaysus I think we're screwed if we do that. I think throwing Billy in is our best option. get him to run the full back a bit. Donie was carried the team this year I can't see any way we can win without him. Maybe if Ross had a blinder but that seems very unlikely on current form. Wheather we survive or not after Sundays results something has to be done to find out the reason why so many of our better footballers don't want to play for the county anymore. its not common in other counties to be missing so many. has the commitment become too much? Is it the 14 men behind the ball?    It's deck chairs on the titanic this year. There is only so much tof can do.
Hope the lads prove me wrong on Sunday but with down desperate for the points I can only see one result.

[Giovanni]

I saw Billy play at full forward a couple of years ago in an O Byrne cup game against Dublin. Rory O Carroll was Dublin's full back that day and, in fairness, Billy had an excellent game. If he was able to reproduce that kind of performance, I don't think anyone could complain. The problem is that, in my opinion, he doesn't have the legs any more and he has never been a score getter. I just think Finn is more mobile, a better fielder and is probably more accurate too. He's obviously less aggressive (or at least appears that way).

An alternative would be to put Evan O Carroll at 14 and bring O Connor or Finn into wing forward but that, for me, would be changing the balance of the team too much.

One way or another, it's a huge task on Sunday. Although their position in the league reflects the story so far, I don't think these lads deserve to end up in Div 3.

[TomBoy]

Good post Target Man and a fair reflection on the game. I'll tell you one lad who is not on the 26 and he is a man who could do with getting a run out on Sunday with Donie unavailable, Evan Costello. He is only coming back from an injury (played a club game two weeks ago) but he is a score getter and a reliable fee taker. I'm sure he needs match practice though and I'm not sure TOF would be willing to play him in such an important league game. Hopefully he sees some action to set him up for the summer.

As some posters have said already, I don't think Billy is the man to go for in full forward. He is a decent ball winner and a hard worker but he is not a scoring threat which is what we need. Nor is Boyle a threat, although he can kick a score he is more of a playmaking forward. We cannot be dependent on Ross for scores as he will be targeted by Down. Scores need to come from elsewhere on Sunday. I wouldn't mind seeing Paul K, Ross and Sheils in the full forward line, with Boyle, Donoher and O'Carroll in the half forward line.

Whatever we go with though I will be happy to get behind them. If we perform well we are capable of winning. And a final league match like this is great prep for championship with so much riding on it.

[Mooreman]

Huge game tomorrow lads.  We have to go all out for a win.  As someone said earlier our lads have shown great fight when their backs are to the wall.  I wish them all the best tomorrow.  Staying in Division 2 is so important.  Dropping to Division 3 would be a disaster and if it happens it could be a while before we get out of it.  Every game would be a dog fight.  We need to be playing in Division 2.  I admit we are not a Division 1 team at the moment.  It's been a while since we could mix it with the big boys but we need to be within touching distance of them.

[Thewildcat]

didn't Justin McNulty get laois to division 1 in his time over them ?  yet most didn't think he was right for laois, if results go wrong on sunday divison 3 is where laois will be playing, but i think they will be ok as i can see them beating a Down side who are a bit over rated i also think Galway will get a result again kildare to sent kildare and westmeath down.

[Giovanni]

Back from Newry and happy to be still in the Division.

Today's match showed us clearly how important Donie Kingston is to the team and how threadbare our defensive resources are.

For a match that had so much importance to both teams, it didn't feel particularly intense. Down were the better team on the day - they were much more incisive going forward but you have to think their job was made a lot easier by our defensive line up and system. Mark Timmons was listed on the programme at No. 3 and No. 4, which would have been nice. I don't think it's fair to ask O Connor or Attride to play in corner back positions and I don't think it's very clever either, particularly when you have Robbie Kehoe, Gearoid Hanrahan and Paul Begley all in the squad. Having said that, no corner back would be able to cope with what was being thrown at them - it was unbelievable how little pressure was put on the Down man with the ball at times. On at least half a dozen occasions all the Laois lads were just following runners and leaving the man with the ball the freedom of the pitch to do what he liked. At least 2 of the goals came from this. It was ridiculous really. I thought the management were especially poor here and really did nothing about it all through. Mark Timmons was again excellent though and snuffed out Laverty when he was finally moved on to him.

Quigley's fielding was absolutely superb again - incredible really. Of the forwards, Evan O Carroll's workrate stood out and he scored 4 or 5 superb long range frees. I thought Tom Shiels looked very lively too and was more than surprised to see him taken off. For sure, he was the only one that looked like he might come up with a goal. Boyle had a very quiet game, Billy didn't contribute, Ross kept getting bottled up and Donoher, although he was busy, didn't get as much work done as usual. I had suggested Finn at FF but he didn't contribute much either when he came on.

Overall though, it was a tired looking performance to me. They didn't really deserve to get anything out of the game and were lucky that other results went their way.

This bunch of players seem to work really hard and I think deserve to hold on to the Div 2 status. It would be really fantastic if we could add a few more to the squad for the championship - we especially need to increase our defensive options but if we do we should give most teams outside the top 5 or 6 a decent run for their money.