Leitrim have little answer to Laois firepower as Wicklow bounce back

Laois bounced back from last week's loss to Offaly to claim a runaway win over a well-below par Leitrim outfit in an extremely one-sided contest where the home supporters had to endure a difficult afternoon.

Laois played very well from start to finish and hardly put a foot wrong over the course of the 70 minutes.

In the opening half the midlanders were certainly firing on all cylinders and Leitrim were only chugging along.

The O'Moore County drew first blood when Ronan Coffey fired over two minutes in and they all but ended the game as a contest with three goals over the next seven minutes with Kevin Swayne, Pa Kirwan and Benny Carroll all finding the Leitrim net.

Laois continued to rule the roost over their shell-shocked hosts with Mark Barry shooting over five points, three coming from play and two from frees. Damon Larkin and Niall Corbett also added to the away side's tally.

Leitrim opened their account when Tom Prior fired over a 32nd-minute point, but Laois hit back with two Barry points, one from a placed ball, and one from James Kelly.

Prior was on target again before the break but Laois still led by a whopping 19 points at the interval, 3-12 to 0-02.

After the restart, the O'Moore men stretched their advantage with Kelly and Barry (free) whipping over a point each.

Keith Beirne opened his account when he answered with a 49th-minute Leitrim point before Laois's Kirwan hit the only two pointer of the game when he split the Leitrim posts from play in the 52nd minute.

Laois's Simon Fingleton and Leitrim's Keith Keegan swapped points at opposite ends but Justin McNulty's side continued in control right up to the end with Conor Brown, Corbett (free) and Larkin landing a point each.

Leitrim closed the scoring with two Darren Cox