By: Tomás Moore
LAOIS minor football selector Paddy Howe has confirmed that Laois have no injury worries ahead of this weekend’s all-Ireland semi-final replay against Derry.
Robbie Kehoe did receive a knock in the opening half of the game but continued playing and he will start against the Ulster side. Donie Kingston is carrying a groin injury but once again will be fit to take his place on the starting 15.
“We trained last night (Monday) and we had no injuries. The lads were in the cold baths and they were grand,” Howe told the Laois Nationalist.
However, the management has been given a selection headache and it is thought that Ciar·n Farrell will be drafted into the starting team but no decision will be made until tonight (Wednesday).
“We will pick the team on Wednesday because we didn’t do a whole lot with them last night (Monday). He (Ciar·n) did okay when he came on. He didn’t have a good run in the Leinster championship and he almost won the game for us on Sunday. The lads have been together since last October so they won’t be giving up spots easily,” he concluded.
However, Laois manager Eddie Kelly has praised his side’s efforts following the hard-fought draw against Derry on Sunday last in Croke Park but was critical of Derry for their style of football.
“I actually though that they (Laois) played well in the second-half. The first-half performance was poor but the second-half performance was very good,” he said.
“We got right back into the game and we played ourselves back into the game. It was not like we were down all during the game to get back in the last minute. We were in trouble in a good few places and we made a good few changes. Games like that bring you on at the same time, when you get to this stage your always playing good teams so someone has to lose.
I said to the television lads outside that we did get out of jail but in Parnell Park they were six points down with twenty minutes to go and they came back with points and even without a goal. I know they got goals today but it left it a lot later,” Kelly said
We didn’t play well at all and there is no denying that and they had a higher intensity than us.
I thought the match was gone with two or three minutes to go, then I looked up and we moved Conor Meredith into the full-forward line. Donie (Kingston) was doing well there anyway and the two of them are fit to score a goal anywhere so I didn’t think it would have come from Zach Tuohy. The lads caused problems in there at the same time.
“They were in our faces the whole time, the referee decisions let everything go to the limit. John O’Loughlin got fairly rough treat-ment the whole game and I felt he could have got a few more frees. I thought the marginal ones went against us which you always look at from your own point of view. He let it go a little bit too far and it suited there style of play more than ours. I won’t concentrate on their style of play and I just hope we play a bit better and up or performance a bit. The lads know that we haven’t played any Northern teams this year so their intensity is fairly high in tack-ling,” he concluded. 

 

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