Tomas Ó Flatharta believes Laois "could have done better" against Dublin last year.

As the O'Moore County manager prepares for a new championship campaign against Carlow on Saturday, he doesn't subscribe to the view that his side played above themselves against the Dubs nearly 12 months ago. A major upset looked to be on the cards when they led by 0-10 to 0-8 at half-time, but Jim Gavin's men turned the screw in the final quarter to eventually win by 2-21 to 0-16.

"I thought we could have done better in the game but this is a new year, and we're starting off again. Everybody is very optimistic and have a lot of ambitions starting off every year," he told The Herald.

"Coming into the championship is a great time and there's a great buzz at this time of the year when you're looking forward to your first championship game."

The Kerry man added: "If you look at it for the last 30 years, Dublin have been a very strong force in Leinster and they are always going to be with all the work and development that they have done at underage. And there's a lot of credit due to them for that work.

"Obviously when we start off every year everybody has ambitions and you're really optimistic about what you can achieve.

"Dublin are very good, but you just take it step by step. We'll take Carlow first, and I don't want to speculate on what might happen after that."

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