Laois 1-17 Offaly 2-13:NINETEEN POINTS divided these neighbours when they met at Tullamore in last year's championship, but yesterday in Portlaoise the home side gave a much better account of themselves.
In their previous games Offaly had shipped a heavy defeat to Tipperary but recovered to share the spoils with Galway two weeks ago. Laois had two journeys into Munster and left after heavy defeats in Limerick and Clare. Laois elected to play with wind assistance and took an early lead with an Eoin Holohan point, but the visitors levelled almost immediately.
James Young opened his account from a placed ball after five minutes and then added another from play. Laois were now playing attractive hurling andfired over successive points from play by Zane Keenan, Joe Dooley and Young again to lead 0-6 to 0-1 after 12 minutes.
Brian Carroll and Keenan traded points and Tom Fitzgerald made it eight to two when a mix-up in the Offaly defence allowed Eoin Holohan to score an easy goal from close range and the Faithful trailed by eight 23 minutes into the game.
Offaly responded and points from James Rigney and Joe Bergin brought them right back into contention, Laois responded withpoints from Canice Coonan and Tom Fitzgerald, but a great Offaly move was finished to the net by the well placed Ger Oakley, Carroll added a point to leave Offaly trailing by 1-10 to 1-6 at the break.
The second half saw conditions deteriorate but not the hurling and Laois continued where they left off with some excellent scores, Holohan got their first point after a minute followed by two more from a Keenan line ball and a third from Fitzpatrick.
Offaly never panicked and when a high ball landed in the square Oakley was first to respond and he gave the goalkeeper no chance. Offaly then enjoyed dominance and shot three points to just one from the home team. In the closing minutes Offaly narrowed the gap to one but a great chance to level was missed when Joe Bergin tailed his effort wide. Young restored a two-point advantage before Shane Dooley pointed but time ran out and Laois claimed a morale booster ahead of the championship clash in May.
LAOIS: P Mullaney; JA Delaney, B Campion, C Dunne; J Phelan, M Whelan, C Coonan (0-1); J Fitzpatrick (0-1), J Walsh; J Young (0-6), E Holohan (1-2), Z Keenan (0-3); T Fitzgerald (0-3), J Dooley (0-1), N Holmes. Subs: S Norton for J Walsh, W Hyland for J Dooley, J Brophy for Holmes.
OFFALY: S O'Connor; C Hernon, K Brady, K Grogan; D Horan, J Bergin (0-3), D Kenny; C Mahon, J Rigney (0-1); S Dooley (0-2), G Oakley (2-1), B Carroll (0-5); D Currams, D Molloy, D Franks (0-1). Subs: G Healion for Grogan, J Brady for Kenny, F Kerrigan for Mahon, S Wynne for Currams.
Referee: C McAllister (Cork).
