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I'd imagine that this will be a real championship style encounter on Saturday. Kildare backs are really up against the wall and that's always dangerous. Although our lads have shown a lot of character to battle back from the bad start, I don't think the performance level against Galway would be enough. We'll probably have to show roughly the same level of performance that we got against Roscommon to win this one. On the positive side, the confidence of our lads should be up and if we all turn up, we should have nothing to fear. Hope Hanrahan recovers from the injury in time - we're a bit short of backs!

It was good to see a few more from Laois at the match by the way. Still not hundreds but at least you'd need more than two hands to count them. More of a reception of Laois yesterday than they got for the Roscommon match in Portlaoise so that's something.

Another good win today.

Played against a ferocious wind in the first half and could only manage 1-1. Our goal came out of a complete c**k up by the Galway keeper but fair play to Kingston who dispossessed him very cleanly and finished to an empty net. We had another goal chance (again Kingston) in the first half that was well saved by the keeper and a few attempts at points that were well off target to say the least. In that first half, we weren't doing as well in midfield as we had been doing but the defence did well enough against the strong wind - Galway had no goal chance all through and most of their scores came from long range shots and/or several handy frees (a good few of which were conceded by Robbie, who is a player I like but he needs to be more careful in the tackle).

Going in only 6 points down at half time, I was fairly confident we'd get back into the game. Although we ended up beating them by 12 points in the half, I didn't think we were as good as we have been. The midfield improved a bit but still wasn't dominant, Begley wasn't in the game as much as he has been, Boyle wasn't as influential as he was, Ross was still off colour (although he was getting to a lot of ball first). Kingston was really magnificent again and Donoher got through a good bit of work. Although they were taken off, I thought Evan O Carroll (in particular) and Paul Kingston did quite well although both subs (Shiel and Attride) both made their contributions. Overall, it was a good win but I'd imagine we'd have to be 25% better to give Kildare a game.

Final word on Marty Duffy who is............ undoubtedly one of the best referees in the country......

I would also agree that Boyle's move to the forwards has been a positive thing. It is true that he hasn't great pace, which is why it's better that he shouldn't play wing back. He reminds me a bit of Bruno - he lost his pace and the move into the forwards gave him a new lease of life. I think the role he played against Meath suited him very well.

Do we know anything about Hanrahan's injury? Overall, I thought we was making a very good fist of the corner back position.

As regards the selection of Dillon, I would imagine that if the manager has some doubts about him, he shouldn't start him (rather than giving him the benefit of the doubt to start and then whip him off when a few things go wrong). This thing of taking people off early all the time can be very damaging to a player's confidence. Anyway, it would be hard to leave Paul Kingston on the bench on the basis of his last 2 performances.

I assume the Corofin boys will be still drunk by next Sunday? 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Personally, I think Mark Timmons is the best full back we have (by a long way). He is definitely inter-country standard. While it would be nice to have O Leary and McMahon fighting for wingback positions, and Cahir Healy as a man marker or centre back, I think Strong, Kehoe, Attride, Begley and maybe O Connor are all good players that can do a good job in the half backs.

I agree that our defence hasn't been great this year but I don't think this is because of the quality of the players. Better defence requires harder work all round the pitch. It also requires a system of sweeping and covering so that defenders are left one-on-one as infrequently as possible. Our lads are being left one-on-one far too often and that bit definitely needs to improve.

I'm not sure that John O Loughlin, or several of the other members of the team, are properly appreciated by the Laois supporters. I'm not surprised at all that he's a regular on the team of the week.

As regards the fitness thing, I'm not sure that fitness levels could have changed all that much from the last day. From my point of view, two important things changed. Firstly, the team simply looked more "up for it" on Sunday. You could see it even in the warm up - they knew this was a do or die scenario really. The mentality of the players was different this time.

The second thing that changed was that the selection of Boyle and Dillon in the half forward line bought more zip and energy to the half forward line and Boyle in particular used the ball very well. I'd like to see us keep those high energy players for the remainder of the league. Damien O Connor or Attride could be used very well as a sweeper which is really needed I think.

We need a few more like unlaoised in Navan on Saturday night.

I know people go on about it ad nauseum but really the support that the football team gets is really embarrassing at this stage. To see a Laois team enter the field for a crucual national league game and not to even raise a polite round of applause is something that really needs attention. We may not win All-Irelands or National Leagues but I still think we have enough good players to be worthy of our support. The likes of Graham Brody, Colm Begley, John O Loughlin, Brendan Quigley, Ross Munnelly and Donie Kingston would make most county teams. To see the development of Evan O Carroll is a pleasure in itself. Of course they're not going to win every game but we have some excellent players and they deserve better support. I really wish the county board would take some concrete measures to improve attendance, at least for the home games. The crowd really can make a difference when it comes to influencing refereeing decisions and we have no 16th man. Very disappointing.

On the game itself, it was the first time in a long time that the forward division looked like a proper unit, rather than a mish-mash of individuals. Of course they were supplied with some nice balls but there was good movement and some very intelligent play, especially from Evan O Carroll, who is really a smart footballer. As someone else said, there was great accuracy in the play, with very few mistakes or kicking from silly positions.

Having said that, I wouldn't agree with the poster who said that our defence was much better. I thought we still looked vulnerable enough and we were left one on one with forwards on two many occasions. We didn't look great under the high ball  and were lucky to get away with it on one or two occasions.

Overall though delighted for the players themselves, who clearly still think the jersey is important, even if the supporters don't.

Couldn't make the game last night but followed on Twitter. Delighted to see them make a good fist of it.

Agree with TomBoy about Evan O Carroll. With the seniors over the last few games, I thought himself and Graham Brody showed great maturity and work rate for such young lads. Although the team wasn't doing great, those two lads stood out for me. Great to see a few coming through like that. Congrats to Derek Conroy too on a job well done.

I noticed that too! For a minute I thought they were proposing to play on Rathlin Island. This would be the equivalent of Cork asking opposing team to come to Schull. I think it's a bit much to be honest and I doubt it suits their own followers particularly well either.