Little’s brace sees minors’ first outing end in defeat

Electric Ireland Leinster minor football championship: Laois 3-7, Westmeath 0-10

Gerry Buckley

A spirited – but wasteful – Westmeath minor football side lost their first round robin game in this year’s Leinster championship last Saturday afternoon in MW Hire O’Moore Park where their hosts Laois pounced for three unanswered goals at crucial stages to emerge as flattering six-point winners.

A strong and swirling wind favoured the home side in Portlaoise in the first moiety and, following the first of Westmeath’s 11 wides – the victors shot just three – David Costello’s second-minute free put Laois into a lead they would never relinquish.

Jeremy Kelly should have added a goal some two minutes later, but there was to be no denying Ryan Little a well-taken three-pointer in the seventh minute.

At the other end, the hard-working Shane Corcoran was superbly thwarted by a goal-line save from Jake Darcy. Laois points ensued from Costello (a great free) and Hugo Emerson (son and namesake of an O’Moore County legend), either side of which Johnny Martin was foiled by Brochan O’Reilly and Westmeath went short with a brace of ‘45s’ which came to nothing.

A routine free conversion by Costello preceded fine goalkeeping by Eoin Doran, and the counterattack saw Ronan Murray belatedly open the losers’ account with a 20th-minute point after Corcoran’s initial effort had hit both sections of the woodwork.

The young men in blue and white added points from the boots of Eoin Johnston, Little, and Costello (a free) before Martin availed of fine play by Corcoran to double his side’s small tally. Tom Bride was wide from a Laois ‘45’, but his team still comfortably led by 1-7 to 0-2 at the interval.

Two aimless wides were a disappointing start to the second half for Westmeath, but a laboured move in the 34th minute ended with a Tadhg Baker point.

The Lake County’s profligacy continued for most of the second quarter with just a Rory Cole point in the 39th minute to show for oodles of wind-assisted possession. Soon afterwards, Murray fumbled the ball when a goal beckoned.

A bright start to the final quarter briefly looked like Westmeath might eat into their opponents’ lead with points, an unanswered three of which from Oisín Shortall, Corcoran and Baker (after a quickly-taken ‘45’) left them just a goal in arrears (1-7 to 0-7) with six minutes of normal time remaining.

However, Little pounced for his second goal against the run of play, squeezing the ball inside the upright when Westmeath ought to have cleared their lines.

To their credit, the Westmeath lads were not lacking in spirit and quickfire points from Baker and Cole gave renewed hope to the travelling fans. Laois sub Cathal Casey was black-carded in the 59th minute before Westmeath sub Sean Dillon had a goal attempt blocked.

Tiarnán O’Donovan pointed for the losers in the second minute of added-time and picked up a black card a minute later. Laois wrapped up their win with a goal in the last action of the match, Little superbly teeing up sub Adam Hunt for the winners’ third green flag of the contest.

Despite this avoidable defeat, a ‘back door’ at U17 level gives Westmeath a decent chance of reaching the knockout stages but, given Dublin’s demolition of Louth last Saturday, it seems certain that Vinny Cox’s charges will have to defeat the Wee County in TEG Cusack Park in their next game to remain in contention.

Scorers – Laois: R Little 2-1, D Costello 0-4 (4f), A Hunt 1-0, H Emerson and E Johnston 0-1 each. Westmeath: T Baker 0-3, R Cole 0-2, T O’Donovan, O Shortall, R Murray, J Martin and S Corcoran 0-1 each.

Laois: Brochan O’Reilly; Jake Darcy, Tadhg Dineen, Eoin Cawley; Conor Raggett, Darragh Loughman, Michael Gaffney; Aaron Tarpey, Hugo Emerson; Corey Lyons Geoghegan, David Costello, Eoin Johnston; Jeremy Kelly, Ryan Little, Tom Bride. Subs used: Kevin Byrne for Johnston (40), Cathal Casey for Lyons Geoghegan (51), Adam Hunt for Bride (59), Danny McGrath for Cawley (60 + 2).

Westmeath: Eoin Doran; Adam Keane, Riley Sheehan, Owen McNamara; Tiernán O’Donovan, Jack Mulvihill, Aodhan Curran; Tadhg Baker, Peter Murphy; John Ryan, Rory Cole, Oisín Shortall; Ronan Murray, Johnny Martin, Shane Corcoran. Subs used: Peter Ballesty for Murphy (40), Daniel McCann for Murray (46), Sean Dillon for Martin (60).

Ref: Darragh Byrne (Wicklow).