Leinster U20 Football Championship: Carlow come undone as goals make the difference for Laois

Leinster U20 Football Championship Round 1

Carlow 0-10

Laois 3-8

The signs may well have been encouraging early on, however in the end goals proved the difference as Laois saw off Carlow in Portlaoise on Tuesday night.

Carlow put together some nice scores throughout the contest and while they most certainly dominated the first half, they could still only go in level at half time with a Jamie O'Brien goal restoring parity at 1-4 to 0-7.

The brace of scores from John Phiri (one off each foot) were very easy on the eye, while Kyle Nolan, Brandon Cassidy and Adam Burgess also finished off good efforts from play, as Liam Gavin converted two testing frees during the half after Josh Egan had earned them.

The Laois goal was a real stinger before half time and once again it was O'Brien who inflicted further pain on the resumption with Laois now holding a 2-4 to 0-7 advantage.

Josh Egan and sub Cialan Brady kicked two fabulous efforts after this; albeit not immediately, while Brandon Kelly and Adam Burgess also had goal chances in this period which Laois thwarted.

Carlow lost Kyle Nolan to a black card on 47 minutes and O'Brien gave Laois a two point advatange from the resulting free. A couple of minutes later it was disaster for Carlow as a kickout went astray and Killian Byrne was on hand to dispatch to the net with Laois now leading 3-5 to 0-9.

The response was positive however and John Phiri bore down on goal before being grounded by John Brennan who subsequently got a black card. Liam Gavin converted once more and the gap was back to 4.

Carlow were handed a lifeline on 58 minutes when Brady was fouled for a penalty. Brandon Kelly's effort wasn't well struck and Laois were let off the hook.

Instead the home side tagged on further points with Cillian Maher wrapping it up and Carlow would lose out by 7 in the end.

On the night Carlow showed they have some really good footballers who are very comfortable on the ball. However as we know, small margins decide games and Laois did punish the mistakes heavily which Simon Rea's side will undoubtedly learn from.

The signs are positive going forward and next up for Carlow is a home clash with Wicklow next Tuesday night who themselves saw off Wexford by two points tonight.

Carlow: Aaron Power; Shane Cormican, Alex Delaney, Kieran Nolan; Mark Mullen, Tom Dillon, Evan Corr; Kyle Nolan (0-1), Adam Burgess (0-1); Jake Nolan, John Phiri (0-2), Josh Egan (0-1); Brandon Cassidy (0-1), Brandon Kelly, Liam Gavin (0-3f).

Subs: Cialan Brady (0-1), James Whelan, Alex Callaghan