Laois 1-6
Louth 1-16
SHANE LENNON and Brian White were the Louth heroes as they caused an early upset in Leinster by defeating Laois by 10 points.
The full forward from the Wee County was kept off the scoresheet for the opening 15 minutes but, once he pointed from play, was next to impossible to mark.
The visitors burst out of the starting blocks and were 0-4 to 0-0 up after just seven minutes on an overcast afternoon in Portlaoise. John Bingham registered the first Laois point of the day before Lennon came to the party.
Gary Walsh slotted over a free for Laois but Lennon struck an excellent, left-footed point to stretch the lead and hammered in a goal, on 20 minutes, to make it 1-7 to 0-2.
A Walsh free was the only response from the home side before Lennon and Brian Donnelly added to their woes. Laois manager Justin McNulty rallied his troops at the break and it paid off as they scored three points, through Walsh and Donie Kingston, on the spin.
White held his nerve with 45′s and a free to quell the Laois resistance, with Paddy Keenan opening his account with a point.
McNulty’s men were given a late boost when Padraig McMahon rattled the back of the net with a fine effort from 20 yards out. Louth, however, played the clock down well with some neat passing. Kevin Rogers and White, again, rubbed the salt in with two final scores for a victorious Louth side, who next face Wexford on 9 June in the Leinster SFC quarter final.
Scorers for Laois: Shane Lennon 1-3 (o-1f), Brian White 0-7 (o-1f 0-3 ’45), John Bingham, Paddy Keenan, Kevin Rogers, Brian Donnelly, Adrian Reid 0-1 each.Scorers for Louth: Padraig McMahon 1-0, Gary Walsh 0-3 (0-2f), Donie Kingston 0-2, Darren Strong 0-1.
Louth’s Ciaran Byrne gets his shot away despite the tackle of Laois captain John O’Loughlin. (©INPHO/Colm O’Neill)
LAOIS: E Culliton; M Timmons, D Booth, P O’Leary; D Strong, J O’Loughlin (Capt), P McMahon; C Boyle, B Quigley; R Munnelly, D Kingston, C Begley; D O’Connor, G Walsh, C Kelly.
LOUTH: N Gallagher; P Rath, D Finnegan, J Bingham; J O’Brien, D Crilly, A Reid; P Keenan, B Donnelly; A McDonnell, B White, C Rafferty; C Byrne, S Lennon, D Maguire.
Referee: Cormac Reilly (Meath)
