Laois easily dispatch Kildare to keep Joe McDonagh hopes alive

By Barry McEvoy

Laois kept their Joe McDonagh Cup ambitions alive with a comprehensive victory over Kildare in O'Moore Park this afternoon.

Willie Maher's men struggled early on as the conditions didn't allow for much free flowing hurling, but a late flurry in the first half set them up perfectly to march on to victory after the break.

Laois had experienced mixed fortunes coming into this game, with one win, one draw and one loss on their record so far in this competition, whereas Kildare's league form has deserted them and they entered this afternoon's game with three losses from three.

It was very much a slow burner as the sides struggled in the intense wind and rain that engulfed Portlaoise. Laois led 0-04 to 0-01 after 17 minutes, all scores coming courtesy of Stephen Maher dead balls in response to a Cian Boran effort from play.

Maher kicked off another flurry Laois scores on 24 minutes with an effort from a free, Ross King scoring their first from play a minute later and Maher capped off the trio with a fine score from distance.

David Qualter pointed a couple of free for the visitors but they were struggling to put any menacing plays together and fell victim of the wind advantage by hitting seven wides.

As the sun began to shine for the final five minutes of the half Laois found another gear. Maher pointed his seventh of the half on 30 minutes.

Stephen Bergin benefitted from some excellent hassling by Martin Phelan to notch a point and the resulting puck out went straight to Aidan Corby who made a powerful run through the middle before handing off to Tomas Keyes who buried the ball across the top of the grass into the bottom right corner for the game's only goal.

Keyes followed up immediately with a point and Laois were