Carlow 1-19
Laois 3-12

Carlow caused a huge surprise when they defeated Laois in the senior hurling championship preliminary qualifiers at Dr Cullen Park this evening.

These sides had already met in the championship and on that occasion, it was Laois that prevailed by six points with Joe Fitzpatrick have an outstanding match that day.

Carlow knew they would have to show a marked improvement on that performance if they were to turn that result around, but they certainly had the players to do so.

The Barrowsiders have benefited from playing in the top level of hurling and they will be learning from every game they play in the top tier.

Laois got off to a good start and after five minutes led by 1-1 to 0-2 with the goal coming from Eoin Costello. But, Carlow came back and a scrambled goal by Denis Murphy followed a flurry of points for the Barrowsiders to leave it 1-4 to 1-1 after eleven minutes.

Carlow moved into a 1-8 to 1-3 lead as Laois began to struggle to keep up with the fluency that the home side were playing with. Kehoe was the star of the first half for Carlow as he registered six points during the opening 35 minutes as Carlow lead by 1-10 to 1-5 at the break.

Kehoe and James Walsh exchanged points at the start of the second half to keep five points between the sides. A goal by John Purcell helped Laois close the gap, but Kehoe was unerring from placed balls as the score was 1-14 to 2-7 after 45 minutes.

Laois came storming back and a second goal by Purcell reduced the gap and a Willie Hyland in the last minute put Laois in front for the first time since the start of the game.

Carlow came back with two late points by Criag Doyle and Murphy to finish the scoring and run out winners by 1-19 to 3-12.

Carlow - F Foley; A Corcoran, S Kavanagh, D Shaw; E Coady, E Nolan (0-1), R Coady; J Hickey, D Byrne; C Doyle (0-3), M Brennan, H P O'Byrne; A Gaule, D Murphy (1-4), P Kehoe (0-11, 8f, 1'65). Subs - A McDonald for O'Byrne (44); J Rogers for Hickey (51); E Byrne for Gaule (60); R Foley for Brennan (66).

Laois - E Reilly; J A Delaney, D Maher, C Healy; B Campion, M Whelan, M McEvoy; S Dollard (0-1), J Walsh (0-2); J Brophy, J Fitzpatrick (0-1), Z Keenan (0-3, 1f, 1sl); E Costelloe (0-1), T Fitzgerald (2-0), J Purcell (1-1). Subs - W Hyland (0-3) for Dollard (29); J Rowney for Brophy (29); C Dunne for Delaney (45); N Foyle for Keenan (51); C Delaney for Costelloe (67).

Ref - M Wadding (Waterford). Tweet

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