Laois 0-16 Armagh 0-10
Laois beat Armagh 0-16 to 0-10 in Portlaoise. The win means Mike Quirke’s side now top Division 2 after an impressive 6 point win. Mark Barry top scored for the hosts with six points.
Armagh were heavy favourites coming into the game on the back of a massive win over Cavan on the opening weekend. However, the first half here was all Laois. Evan O’Carroll and Rian O’Neill swapped frees to open the scoring for each side. Laois though kicked the next two scores through Mark Barry and Michael Keogh as they led by 0-03 to 0-01. Niall Grimley cut the gap with a 20th minute point. Then came a Laois purple patch knocking over five scores in a row. Evan O’Carroll getting two, Brian Byrne, Kieran Lillis, Mark Timmons all pointing to give Laois a 0-08 to 0-02 lead the break.
Kieran McGeeney obviously wasn’t happy with his side and they came out playing much better football at the start of the second half. Mark Barry landed a free for the hosts but then came the Orchard’s purple patch. They kicked four in a row. Rian O’Neill landed three frees while Conor Tubritt scored from play. With 30 minutes left the gap was down to three. However, Mark Barry steadied the Laois ship. He knocked over a couple of frees, while O’Carroll registered two from play to Laois 0-13 to 0-08 ahead with 55 minutes played. Mark Barry and Jamie Clarke traded a couple of frees at the end but Laois weren’t going to be denied here as they went on to beat Armagh by 6 points.
