Laois Trounce Wicklow

Wicklow Sports

Sports Archives

/ Sports /

Printable Version

Email this Story

Laois Trounce Wicklow

Sunday, April 29 2007

NHL Division 2 Final

Laois 2-19 Wicklow 0-8

Laois have set up a Playoff final with Limerick for the final place in next season's National Hurling League Division 1 after seeing off Wicklow by 2-19 to 0-8 in the Division 2 final at Semple Stadium on Sunday.

Wicklow's win over Laois earlier in the league campaign was a big shock and seen as a humiliation for the O'Moore County, but there was to be no fairytale finish to the season for the side from the south east as Damien Fox's charges chalked up a comprehensive victory.

James Young was the star man from the start and an early free from the Laois talisman opened the scoring.

Willie Hyland added a second before Jonathan O'Neill pointed the first score for John Mitchell's men, but Young then took centre stage in a period of dominant Laois pressure.

The hurling may not have been outstanding overall, but Young in particular took the chances that came his way with ruthless accuracy and he reinstated the two-point gap with a confident 30-metre free.

Wicklow's defending was allowing Laois to get into a lot of scoring positions and John Brophy should have punished them after being set up by Joe Fitzpatrick, but his effort was just wide. Young, however, was not so wasteful and after collecting a Brian Campion pass, he sent over Laois' fourth score - a super long-range point.

Young and O'Neill then traded frees, though in between Wicklow could have greatly reduced the deficit, but O'Moore goalkeeper Paddy Mullaney was equal to a goalbound effort from Dan Hyland after the Garden County forward had been picked out in space by Wayne O'Gorman.

Another Young free made it 0-6 to 0-2 and six became seven when Laois' Hyland sent over the finest of points from way out after Joe Fitzpatrick had done really well to keep hold of the sliotar and set him up.

Tommy Fitzgerald then set Jason Phelan up for another Laois score, with O'Neill continuing to battle away for Wicklow with a long range effort his third point.

It was too easy at times for Laois, however, and Young had no bother in sending over his sixth point from a 30-metre free after Brophy was pushed over.

A Young line ball and an acute score from Hyland extended the lead to eight points and things got worse again for Mitchell's men when O'Gorman injured his arm in a strong but honest collision with Laois' powerful full back, the dual man Darren Rooney.

Alan Tierney was O'Gorman's replacement and soon after he came on, team-mate Hyland became the first Wicklow player other than O'Neill to grab a point, but that proved to be the last score of the half with Laois holding a 0-11 to 0-4 lead as the teams headed for the dressing room.

Willie Hyland sent over the first point of the second half for Laois, but not before the Garden men had missed a couple of chances to try and reduce the gap.

Young added another before Tierney replied with a fine point for his first score since coming on, but any chance Wicklow had was ended on 48 minutes when Laois raised the green flag.

Worse for Wicklow was the fact that the goal could have been avoided as they repeatedly failed to clear and allowed the sliotar to be pulled back into the danger zone where Shane Dollard hit it goalwards and Brophy got the final touch to put the game out of Wicklow's reach.

Mitchell's side plugged on and Tierney hit another point back, but Young simply responded with another long range effort that was arguably the point of the day and he then added a '65 after Tom Finn turned a Hyland effort behind.

O'Neill hit his fourth score for Wicklow but there was no let up as Jason Phelan ran clear in the Laois corner forward position and although he had a chance of a goal, he rammed it over to make it 1-16 to 0-7.

A rare miss from Young did little weaken the Laois command as young sub Eamonn Jackman and then Joe Phelan added further points. Wicklow continued to miss what few chances came their way and Laois ended the game with a second goal, as another of their young subs made a contribution.

Neil Costelloe received the ball from Fitzgerald and had a simple task of beating Finn and bulging the net as a deflated Wicklow defence looked on.

There was still tome for Philip Russell to add a point as Laois sealed a comfortable win. Fox's men will no doubt have a tougher task against Limerick in two weeks' time, but if they play like they did in this final, then they will have every chance of grabbing a spot among the big boys next term.

Printable Version

Email this Story