Laois attacker Tom Shiel insists the O'Moore County are looking onwards and upwards.

When Shiel joined the senior squad recently after starrring for the Laois U21s this year - earning the U21 Player of the Month award for February in the wake of his match-winning exploits against Wexford - they were pointless after two outings.

Tomas O Flatharta's men have since rebounded with a win over Roscommon and a draw away to Meath on Saturday night. Shiel says he never detected any panic in the dressing room:

"I don't know how the mood was in the camp early in the league but confidence was high after the Roscommon game," the IT Carlow student states in he Irish Independent.

"Going to Meath was always going to be tough. And while a lot of lads were disappointed we didn't see out the game and get the win and the points, we still managed an eight-point turnaround which was good.

"We're second from bottom now so there is still work to be done and we'll just have to take it one game at a time. But relegation hasn't been mentioned by anyone in the dressing room so we'll just keep going and working away."

Regarding Laois' Leinster U21 FC quarter-final loss to Dublin, the 19-year-old Stradbally clubman adds: "Dublin are very strong. I think they had seven of last year's All-Ireland winning side still playing and a lot of them have played senior too. We went ahead in the second half and then kicked three bad wides and our confidence went and they just took off from there.

"Their conditioning is amazing. They play a running game that is very hard to play against and they have some great footballers. I haven't seen too many of the other teams but I think they'll go well again in Leinster at least. They'll be very hard to stop."

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