Laois 0-17
Kildare 1-11

Laois produced the second-half goods in Newbridge this evening to see off Kildare and move into the quarter-finals of the Leinster U20 football championship.

The O’Moore men outscored the hosts by 0-10 to 1-3 after the restart to book their slot against Westmeath next week, sending the Lilywhites – Leinster and All-Ireland champions from last year – out in the process.

Early points from Luke Griffin (free), Liam O’Flynn and Jack Cully (free) saw Kildare lead by 0-3 to nothing after just four minutes before the visitors levelled proceedings with white flags from Dan McCormack and Diarmuid Whelan (2 frees).

The victors fell behind again though as their opponents twice opened three-point gaps via points by Cully and Colm Joyce but a well-stroked ‘45’ from Eoin Dunne and a Whelan point from play left Kildare just one up (0-8 to 0-7) at the interval.

Dean Brophy tied things up two minutes into the resumption and Laois saw their first lead when Whelan landed a superb point on 35 minutes.

From there, Billy O’Loughlin’s charges took off as Whelan and Michael Doran helped widen the gap out to six prior to the holders hammering home a consolation penalty through Griffin in the fifth minute of injury-time.

Laois now face the Lake County in Mullingar next Tuesday night in the last eight with throw-in time again scheduled for 7.30pm.

Laois - M Byron; M Dowling, S Lacey, A Mohan; C Slevin, J Lacey, D Brophy (0-1); R Tyrrell, E Dunne (0-1'45); R Coffey (0-1), M Doran (0-4), N Dunne; A Kinsella, D McCormack, D Whelan (0-10, 3f). Subs: J Owens for D McCormack, M Dempsey for N Dunne, PJ Daly for M Doran, J Maher for A Kinsella, K Byrne for C Slevin.

Kildare - A O'Neill; N O’Sullivan, M Barrett, C Halpin; E McGovern, DJ Earley, D Ryan; J Carey, J Burke; L O’Flynn (0-1), D Kirwan (0-3), B McDonnell (0-1); C Joyce (0-2), J Cully (0-2, 1f), L Griffin (1-2, 1-0pen, 0-2f). Subs: S Cullen for L O’Flynn, P Behan for J Carey, S O’Sullivan for C Joyce, B Stynes for C Halpin (BC), P McDermott for E McGovern, A Steed for B McDonnell.

Referee - B Tiernan.

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