Late Laois rally spoils O'Rourke's home debut

From a position of strength with 13 minutes remaining Meath failed to score again and allowed Laois hit the last five points of the game to rescue an O'Byrne Cup round two draw, 2-10 to 0-16, in Pairc Tailteann today.

Cillian O'Sullivan's 49th minute goal stretched Meath's lead to 2-9 to 0-10 and after Evan O'Carroll and O'Sullivan traded points eight minutes later Meath still looked in pole position to secure their second win of the competition.

However, chances went abegging in the closing stages as Meath struggled to make an impact up front. In contrast Laois were dangerous on the counter attack and with Eoin Lowry (two), Lee Walker and Mark Barry (free) dragging them to within a point it was Padraig Kirwan who kicked the equaliser in injury-time to spoil Meath's plans.

There was a late goalmouth scramble that led to Meath appeals for a penalty, but referee Seamus Farrelly saw nothing untoward and Laois held on to secure the draw their efforts deserved.

Meath were left frustrated by a poor first-half display that saw them kick seven wides and drop three other attempts short into Scott Osbourne's hands. There were also a couple of decent goal opportunities squandered that could have put Meath out of sight before half-time.

It had looked promising for Meath early on when the lively and troublesome Jordan Morris opened the scoring in the third minute and six minutes later an excellent move involving Darragh Campion, Morris and Matt Costello ended with O'Sullivan firing a fine goal to extend Meath's lead to 1-1 to 0-0.

Lowry opened Laois's account from a 13th minute free and by the 22nd minute Barry and Paul Kingston added to their tally to narrow the deficit to two points.

Morris responded with point after 12 barren minutes, but Meath failed to score for another 12 minutes and as they wasted decent chances in that spell it was Laois who impressed with Barry getting the ball rolling before O'Carroll kicked three booming scores from distance, against the wind, to edge his side ahead.

Keith Curtis ended Meath's dry run with a 30-metre free to ensure parity at the break, 1-4 to 0-7.

Within 90 seconds of the restart Laois edged two points clear with O'Carroll and Barry (free) on target, but then Meath went on a run of four scores in five minutes with Curtis (free), McGowan and two from Donal Lenihan (one free) pushing them 1-8 to 0-9 ahead by the 45th minute.

Another massive free from O'Carroll kept Laois in touch, but Meath made a burst for the winning line when O'Sullivan pointed before finding the net for the second time with his half blocked shot dribbling over the line for a five-point lead.

O'Carroll from a '45' and O'Sullivan traded further points to maintain the gap by the 58th minute, but Meath failed to score again as Laois capitalised to claim a draw and leave Meath needing a win over Longford in Ashbourne on Wednesday night if they are to advance to the final.

After the game Meath manager Col O'Rourke was disappointed with his side's scoring return, but was happy with the attitude and is looking forward to the game against Longford.

"I thought we started well and looked very good in the first 10 minutes, then it all went a bit flat," O'Rourke told the Meath Chronicle.

"Some fellas took the wrong options, there were a lot of shots taken by lads who were in good positions and they deserved to be taken, but our accuracy in both Carlow and today was poor, we would certainly like to be getting our wides down to five or six instead of the 12 or 14 we've had.

"The other side of that is that we are getting chances, it's just that we are not taking them.

"We will be trying to win against Longford on Wednesday because we believe that the more competitive matches we get with this group of player then the better.

"We have four or five away with Sigerson football next week, so we only played them Wednesday night for a while and for a half-hour today, lads like Cathal Hickey, Diarmuid Moriarty and Darragh Campion, we are trying to be fair to them as well.

"It will be another new team for Wednesday night, it'll be a mixture of the team that played against Carlow and the team that played today.

"Ronan Jones is close to coming back, Paudraic Harnan is nearly there, Conor McGill is now back with the panel, Shane Walsh will also be coming back so we have quite a few other players to come back in as well, so we have a lot of options," he said.

Meath - Harry Hogan; Ross Ryan, Cathal Hickey, Michael Flood; Conor Quigley, Daniel O'Neill, Shane McEntee; Daithi McGowan (0-1), Shane Crosby; Cillian O'Sullivan (2-2), Darragh Campion, Jack O'Connor; Mathew Costello, Jordan Morris (0-3), Keith Curtis (0-2 frees). Subs - Donal Keogan for Hickey, Donal Lenihan (0-2 one free) for Costello, Diarmuid Moriatrty for Campion all half-time, Robin Clarke for O'Neill 44 mins, Brian Conlon for Quigley 48m, Conor Moriarty for O'Connor 54m, Aaron Lynch for Morris 58m, Sean Rafferty for McEntee 67m.

Laois - Scott Osbourne; Sean Greene, Trevor Collins, Robert Piggott; Sean O'Flynn, Mark Timmons, Brian Byrne; Damon Larkin, James Finn; Mark Barry (0-3 one free), Paul Kingston (0-1), Patrick O'Sullivan; Eoin Lowry (0-4 three frees), Evan O'Carroll (0-6 two frees, two '45s'), Colm Murphy. Subs - Kevin Swayne for Larkin 34 mins, Lee Walker (0-1)for Kingston, Niall Corbett for Murphy both 54m, Seamus Lacey for Piggott 58m,Padraig Kirwan (0-1) for O'Flynn 61m, Cathal Doyle for Finn, Dylan Kavanagh for O'Sullivan both 63m, Kieran Lillis for Timmons 72m.

Referee - Seamus Farrelly (Dublin).