Laois 0-14, Clare 2-18
Clare are through Round 3 of the All-Ireland Qualifiers after a 10-point win over Laois in O’Moore Park today.
The Banner blitzed Laois in the second half, taking advantage of John O’Loughlin’s red card in the 39th minute to run out comfortable winners.
They took the lead early on through a Keelan Sexton free, and never trailed at any stage in the game.
The accuracy of Eoin Cleary was central to their victory, as he kicked six points in the first half to see them lead 0-11 to 0-8 at half time.
The second half began in the worst possible fashion for Laois, as O’Loughlin was red-carded for an off-the-ball incident with Ciaran Russell. Clare took advantage of their greater numbers, as Cleary set Jamie Malone through on goal, and he found the back of the net.
Laois looked a beaten side now, as Clare extended their lead with points from Pierce Lillis and Cleary once more, before the final nail in Laois’ coffin was hammered home.
On another Clare attack, the ball broke kindly for Keelan Sexton, who was left with the simple task of hammering the ball to an empty net.
There was no way back from Laois for that, as Clare march on to the next round.
Scorers: Laois: D Kingston 0-8 (7f), S Attride 0-3, G Walsh (f), C Begley, D Conway 0-1 each.
Clare: E Cleary 0-9 (3f, 3 45s), K Sexton 1-2 (0-1f), G Brennan, C O’Connor, P Lillis 0-2 each, J Malone 0-1.
LAOIS: G Brody; D Strong, M Timmons, T Collins; E Buggie, P McMahon, C Begley; B Quigley, J O’Loughlin; A Farrell, D Conway, D O’Connor; S Attride, D Kingston, G Walsh. Subs: N Donoher for O’Connor (ht), J Kelly for Buggie (47), P Kingston for Conway (50), R Munnelly for Walsh (50), J Finn for Quigley (55), B Daly for Attride (60)
CLARE: J Hayes; G Kelly, K Harnett, M McMahon; P Lillis, C Russell, D Ryan; G Brennan, C O’Connor; C O’Dea, E Cleary, S Collins; K Sexton, D Tubridy, J Malone. Subs: J Hayes for Russell (56), G O’Brien for Tubridy (56), S Malone for Sexton (61), D Nagle for O’Dea (61), E Collins for Harnett (64), K Malone for S Collins (68), D Bohannon for Lillis (68)
Ref: J Henry (Mayo)
