Laois stepped up a gear in the second half to defeat DIT by 0-15 to 0-7 at Portarlington.

Inspired by the impressive Ross Munnelly, the O'Moore County took their time in getting in their stride and the first half was played out at a mundane pace with the score at 0-4 by the interval.

The introduction of Padraig Clancy at full forward seemed to offer Laois an outlet that they used very well and with Munnelly pulling the strings, they got scores from MJ Tierney, Paul Cahillane, Darren Strong, Davy Conway, Conor Boyle and Darren Maher, while the aforementioned Munnelly was also on target.

DIT relied on Wicklow native John McGrath up front, but he had very little support as their challenge wilted in the second half.

Laois: E Culleton; D Strong (0-2), K Lillis, B Mulligan; L Kealy, P O'Leary, C Boyle (0-1); K Meaney, D Maher; R Munnelly (0-3), J Finn, A Mahon; MJ Tierney (0-2), G Walsh (0-3 3f), P Cahillane (0-2). Subs: C Kelly for J Finn, D Conway (0-1) for Mahon, P Clancy for Walsh, S Julian for O'Leary, C Begley for Maher.

DIT: A O'Mara; R Tierney, J Mahon, J Gallagher; N Devereaux, E Reilly, D Hughes; P O'Connor, G McKiernan; H Dawson (0-2), J McGrath (0-3), P Sharry; D Shatwell, E Murray, A McLoughlin. Subs: P Cunningham (0-1) for Devereaux, Parsons for O'Connor, S Flynn for Mahon, C Walsh for Murray, P Maguire (0-1) for McGrath.

Ref: J McCormack (Dublin) Tweet

Most Read Stories