Laois 4-15
Longford 0-16

Two goals either side of half-time proved more than enough for Laois to see off Longford's challenge this afternoon at O'Moore Park and move into the Leinster SFC quarter-finals.

Brothers Donie and Paul Kingston combined for 3-5 over the 70 minutes to devastate the visitors and move into a last eight clash with neighbours Kildare on June 4th.

Peter Creedon's men made a red-hot start to this contest and finished the first-half in emphatic fashion with two goals from the Kingstons to leave Longford with a mountain to try and scale in the second-half.

Alan Farrell would fire in the winners' third goal early in the restart and, incredibly, the ball would be in the Longford net for a fourth time via the boot of Paul Kingston, sealing their path into the first round of qualifiers.

Relegated from Division 4 of the Allianz League last month, Laois started this first round clash with plenty of purpose as Niall Donoher, Evan O'Carroll and Paul and Donie Kingston had them four points in front inside the opening five minutes.

Robbie Smyth's frees were what kept Longford in touch during the O'Moore men's sizzling start, as Donie Kingston and Eoin Buggie had the score board reading 0-6 to 0-2 in the home side's favour after 11 minutes.

Smyth shot the Midlanders first point from open play two minutes later but the spree still continued at the other end, as Brendan Quigley, Padraig McMahon and Donie Kingston widened the gap to six.

Longford began to get a grip around the centre afterwards and it reaped points from Smyth (2 frees) and Sean McCormack but the run in before half-time would be disastrous for Denis Connerton's men.

John McLoughlin's fine score made it a four-point game and after both sides saw chances fall by the way side, Laois made sure to take maximum profit from their last two journeys towards their opponents goal before half-time.

Paul and Donie Kingstons hit the back-to-back majors in the 34th and 35th minutes to devastate the visitors, leaving at 2-10 to 0-7 for the break.

Whatever Connerton's instructions were after that didn't work as the assault on Longford's goal continued in the early stages of the restart, with Farrell's goal being backed up by Paul Kingston's second in the 40th minute which came off the back off some splendid work by his team mate sibling.

Two Smyth frees finally stopped the rot for Longford and the Abbeylara sharpshooter would bring his personal tally up to 0-11 before the finish to try and take some tarnish off the scoreboard.

Points from Liam Connerton and Darren Gallagher left only the goals in it with a quarter hour remaining.

However, the game was well and truly over once Begley, sub Darren Strong and O'Loughlin raised another flurry of white flags for Laois and they now look forward to what should be an intriguing battle against the Lilywhites next month with a semi-final berth on the line.  

Laois - G Brody; D Strong (0-1), D Booth, D O'Connor; E Buggie (0-1), S Attride, P McMahon (0-1); B Quigley (0-1), C Begley (0-1); N Donoher (0-1), E O'Carroll (0-1), A Farrell (1-0); J O'Loughlin (0-3), D Kingston (1-4, 0-3f), P Kingston (2-1). Subs: J Kelly for D O'Connor, G Dillon for S Attride, J Finn for D Kingston, R Munnelly for E O'Carroll, K Meaney for N Donoher, S Moore for J O'Loughlin.

Longford - P Collum; D Brady, B Gilleran, A Farrell; D McElligott, J McGivney, D Reynolds; J Keegan, M Quinn; R McEntire (0-1), S McCormack (0-1), D Masterson; R Smyth (0-11, 7f), L Connerton (0-1), B McKeon. Subs: D Gallagher (0-1) for D Masterson, B O'Farrell for A Farrell, L Moran for J Keegan, C Berry (0-1) for B O'Farrell, D McGivney for R McEntire, D Mimnagh for D Reynolds.

Referee - A Nolan.

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