Longford v Laois

[Hardy]

The jacks are back.

[LaurelEye]

Two poor outfits, but Laois's position on their downward slope was still a little above Longford's position on their downward slope this evening.

Good performances on the Longford team from Podgie Berry, Shane Mulligan, Liam Keenan, Diarmuid Masterson and Dermot Brady.

Someone should inform one or two of our better-known forwards that they are allowed to pass to other players when they're in a better position.

Luke will now have much more time to devote to radio commentary. Hopefully he will not be distracted next year by team management.

[Shamrock Shore]

Can't add anything to Laurel's summation. Longford played good football for only 5-10 minutes in the second half. V poor game and I cannot see Laois getting much further. A good side will destroy them.

That is all.

[Barney]

Luke will now have much more time to devote to radio commentary. Hopefully he will not be distracted next year by team management.

What odds he will have recovered sufficiently to wet himself silly about the Dubs tomorrow?

[North Longford]

Should have won this game, some of the wides and balls into the keepers hands were atrocious.

Thought Keenan was as good as I've seen him in a Long time. Masterson very good too and I thought Conefry done a good job.
Declan Reilly did a very good job on Munnelly but a couple of his passes were uncharactristically terrible one of which led directly to a Laois point.
Shane Mulligan is brilliant when Longford have the ball, is always available when the ball is being worked out and wins his fair share of breaks but I don't think he marks tight enough when the opposition have the ball and quite often his man is available to win handy ball and turn and give it again under very little pressure.
Dowd worked very hard but runs into trouble a lot.
Actually wasn't impressed with Berry. For all the running and working he does, very little comes off it!

Someone should inform one or two of our better-known forwards that they are allowed to pass to other players when they're in a better position.

As for this point.......its actually not funny any more. Kavanagh had at least 3 or 4 occassions where he absolutely should have given the ball and didn't. It must be almost impossible to play with him.
In fact its ironic that I was told a story at the game about a conversation 2 of the other forwards had at last weekends trip to the capital, where one of the forwards who is playing out of position for Longford was talking to another one of the forwards who is playing out of position for Longford  asked him why he kept bursting himself running for the ball when it was never going to be passed!!!....kinda telss its own story

[The Real Laoislad]

Teenage star Kingston right at home in step-up to senior championship challenge




THE teenager that Laois manager Liam Kearns didn't want to play eventually turned out to be his side's match-winner at Pearse Park on Saturday night.

It's not that Kearns has anything against 17-year-old schoolboy Donie Kingston. But when it comes to hardcore championship football, perhaps young talent needs to be nurtured gently.

That was part of Kearns's thinking a few weeks ago, but there was no stopping the 6ft-plus gangling Barrowhouse clubman. He simply could not be kept off the team for his championship debut.

"To be honest, Donie has a huge amount of talent. He's physically very strong, mentally very strong," Kearns admitted afterwards.

"He's as good a 17-year-old as I've seen at this stage of his career. We thought we'd be taking him off the bench, but he was playing too well in challenge matches, so we were forced into playing him.

"We just couldn't keep him off the team. He's too good. Once we got the ball in to him he kept getting scores and Donie was probably the match-winner for us."

Corner forwards are traditionally bred small and pacy, but Kingston's height, style and composure are reminiscent of two members of the 'height for hire' versatile forward brigade of the '80s — Padraic Dunne of Offaly and John Caffrey, Pillar Caffrey's brother, both of whom won an All-Ireland with their respective counties.

Kingston confirmed that he's here to stay on the championship stage by scoring a vital goal in the 55th minute which turned the tide in favour of Laois when they were in danger of being overrun by rampant Longford.

It could have been a hat-trick as he later blasted in two goal efforts which rocketed over the bar for points — not the same thrill for the youngster but very important contributions.

Fair play to Longford. They did not look like a side that had a long 10-week wait between their championship outings, and which had minimal preparation due to the Longford CCC insisting on playing club championship matches in between.

Manager Luke Dempsey, who announced his resignation after the match, and criticised the Longford CCC, said: "I have no doubt we would have won today if the preparations had been right.

"Laois's superior preparations, I can safely say, won the match by two points but you can't fault our lads for a huge effort. Our preparations were far less than any other county.

"That has nothing to do with my decision to leave. That decision was made at the start of the year. I've had four marvellous years but I just feel it's time for somebody else to take over."

Laois go forward but Longford gave them a hard battle. Their short-passing game was productive against the breeze in the first half in terms of possession and making chances.

They had more attacks and more wides than Laois but at half-time the scoreline read Laois 0-5, Longford 0-4.

Physically the exchanges were hard and the area between both half back lines at times resembled an M50 traffic jam, but Longford had two points from Francis McGee and one each from Brendan Kavanagh and Paul Barden.

Laois number 13 Michael John Tierney proved lucky for his team, as he picked off three points from frees, with Brendan Quigley and Tom Kelly getting a point each.

An early Ross Munnelly point extended the Laois lead to two points but once Paddy Dowd scored a 46th-minute point for Longford, and Francis McGee equalised a minute later, the home team took control.

Brendan Kavanagh put Longford in the lead on 48 minutes, and Paul Barden added to it four minutes later.

However when Kingston blasted a goal after 55 minutes following a superb six-man passing move, the impetus reverted in favour of Laois.

Kingston fired goalwards, but scored a point three minutes later to put the scores at 1-7 to 0-8, Barry Brennan added another and from then on Laois never relinquished the lead.

McGee got two more points for Longford and hard-working Dowd another in a frantic finish, but a late Barry Brennan point gave Laois the two-point winning margin.

In added time, Laois's Padraig McMahon was red-carded for a second yellow card offence, but it was of no benefit to Longford.

Scorers — Laois: D Kingston 1-3 (1f), M Tierney 0-3 (3f), T Kelly, B Quigley, R Munnelly, B Brennan 0-1 each. Longford: F McGee 0-4 (1f), B Kavanagh 0-3 (2f), P Barden, P Dowd 0-2 each.

Laois — M Nolan (6); C Healy (6), D Rooney (7), C Ryan (6); P O'Leary (6), T Kelly (7), P McMahon (6); B Quigley (7), J O'Loughlin (6); R Munnelly (7), R Brennan (7), R McCormack (6); MJ Tierney (7), C Parkinson (7), D Kingston (. Subs: B Sheehan (6) for R Munnelly (50), C Kelly for MJ Tierney (58), P Lawlor for C Parkinson (66), D Murphy for P O'Leary (69).

Longford — D Sheridan (6); D Brady (7), N Farrell (5), C Conefrey (6); S Mulligan (7), A O'Connor (7), DC O'Reilly (7); L Keenan (7), P Dowd (; D Farrell (7), P Barden (7), D Masterson (6); F McGee (, P Berry (7), B Kavanagh (7). Subs: K Mulligan (6) for D Farrell (46), P Foy for P Berry.

Ref — T Quigley (Dublin).

- Liam Kelly SFC Qualifier first round

-Independent.ie

[AZOffaly]

height for hire' versatile forward brigade of the '80s — Padraic Dunne of Offaly

Padraic Dunne was a midfielder. He was Tomas O'Connor's partner in the 1982 All Ireland at 19 years of age. He may have moved in later on in his career, but he was no Donie Kingston.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Is Brendan Kavanagh any relation to Brian??? 

[Billys Boots]

He certainly didn't appear to be any relation on Saturday.