Laois roared to a 1-9 to 0-6 opening-round victory over Longford at blustery Portlaoise tonight.

The winners had to defy the elements as well as their opponents to convincingly book their place in the last eight of the provincial series.

With a gale force wind sweeping across O'Moore Park, scores proved hard to come by in a first half that ended with the victors ahead by double scores, 0-4 to 0-2.

This promised to be a fascinating opening-round contest as it featured two counties which have been extremely successful in the U18 grade in recent years and it was the hosts who got off to the better start.

With three quick points from the impressive Evin Keane, Eoin Lowry and Tom Shiel ('45'), the wind-assisted O'Moore County roared into a 0-3 to no score advantage inside seven minutes.

But the visitors weren't about to roll over and they slotted two points to trail by the minimum at the midway stage in the first half, 0-3 to 0-2. Amazingly, the second quarter would produce just a solitary point…

Right corner forward Keane bagged his second score of the night to make it double scores at the start of the second quarter and a long scoreless period ensued from here to the short whistle as both sets of players struggled to cope with the difficult conditions that prevailed.

Two minutes from the break, Longford goalkeeper Shane Fitzpatrick made a fantastic save to deny Laois full forward Lowry. That crucial goal-denying block was the last significant action of a testing first half and the two teams went in at the interval for some deserved respite from the elements.

Undaunted by the prospect of playing into the wind, Laois pounced for the game's only goal within 22 seconds of the restart! Wing forward Dean Cullen provided the finish to the net and Shiel followed up with a point to leave the hosts ahead by 1-5 to 0-2 after 34 minutes.

Again Longford pulled back a couple of points but Shiel steadied Laois with a 43rd-minute free, struck beautifully into the wind, 1-6 to 0-4.

Longford then created a goal chance of their own but the ball flew over the bar to leave four points between the sides with 14 minutes remaining.

A brace of Keane points (his third and fourth) had the winners ahead by five points with ten minutes to go, 1-8 to 0-6, and wing back Nigel Murphy tagged on another to make it double scores after 54 minutes. Leading by 1-9 to 0-6 with six minutes left, it looked like Laois had - quite literally - weathered the storm!

And so it proved as there were no more scores in this entertaining but demanding first-round assignment.

Laois will face yet-to-be-determined opposition in their quarter-final on May 11th, while Longford get a second bite at the cherry when they take on the losers of this Saturday's first-round game between Meath and Offaly. That Losers Round Two fixture will be played on May 1st.

Laois - P O'Sullivan; A Campion, D McDermott, L Knowles; N Murphy (0-1), C Hogan, D McCauley; R Dowling, C McEvoy; D Cullen (1-0), T Shiels (0-3f), D O'Reilly; E Keane (0-4, 1f), E Lowry (0-1), E O'Carroll. Subs: A Forbes for Dowling, A Brennan for Cullen, M Keogh for Shiels, J Davis for Knowles, A McGrath for McEvoy.

Longford - S Fitzpatrick; A Duffy, J Earley, D Reynolds; C Hughes, A McElliott, R Sweeney; P Farrell, S Kenny; M Cassidy (0-3f), D McGivney (0-1), L Sullivan; L Moran, A Farrell, P Kiernan (0-1). Subs: R Brady for Gorman (0-1), F Sheridan for Farrell.

Referee - G Whelan. Tweet

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