Portlaoise boss Mark Kavanagh said he was delighted to see his side come through what he described as a "bruising" encounter against Rathnew yesterday.

The Laois champions needed to dig deep in the second-half to secure victory against their Wicklow opponents at O'Moore Park, where they recorded a 1-14 to 0-12 victory to book a place in the last four of the Leinster club SFC.

"It was a bruising," Kavanagh stated. "That, tough, is what Leinster club football is about. You are playing county champions and they have come through a hard season of football since January and February - and that applies to both teams.

"Everyone is on top of their game at this time of year…at least they should be, anyway. Rathnew, in fairness to them, put it up to us in the first-half and after that I think maybe our fitness came to the fore in the second-half and the football as well."

Kavanagh pointed to Brian Gaynor's 38th minute goal as the turning point for his side's victory, after they had trailed 0-8 to 0-4 at half-time.

"Rathnew had their full complement of players after the Wicklow county board rescinded the red card for James Stafford, which was an amazing thing - but, fair play to their county board; we would sooner beat Rathnew with a full complement of players," he said.

"Brian Gaynor took his goal chance well. We have been doing that all year in terms of getting lads from all over the field to try and score. It came at a fantastic time for us and was a fantastic score." Tweet

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