Laois - Monaghan

Not arsed writing up a big report on the game, don't just feel like it right now to be honest! So I'll just say what I thought of it from my own point of view.

What a win! Completely unexpected, we totally flew out of the blocks and Laois had no answer for our attacks. I had thought before that we'd need a bit of help from Meath or Armagh, I never thought we'd actually score enough to go above either Cork or Kildare to get promoted. Of course Kildare only drew in the end but we still would have topped the group easily on score difference.

Got the best possible start when Finlay got the ball in midfield and ran through the Laois defence to the 13 and blasted into the net, superb goal. We then added a few points before MJ Tierney opened Laois' account. We then totally ripped through them scoring at will, I was actually astonished at how clinical we were! Tommy Freeman got another goal and several points were also added. All our forwards had scored by about the 20th minute. MJ Tierney added another free but Damien Freeman then scored a 3rd goal to completely finish the game, the score was 3-12 to 0-2 at HT, unbelievable stuff!

The game was over and it was just a case of keeping the difference in the second half. MJ Tierney got a red card after stupidly lashing out at McArdle out of frustration, right in front of the linesman. The rest of the half was very much played at a stroll, Downey added a 4th goal after a great flick from Hanratty, who himself had a goal disallowed earlier in the half. Donie Kingston added a few points for Laois, one of the few players to show up well for them, and the game finished 4-16 to 0-8.

We now look forward to the Division 2 final against Cork, but the next big game really is Derry on May 24th, good to have another competitive game before that, especially as they do aswell. Great to see that the team can be so ruthless and clinical in front of goal when they need to be. Of course Laois had nothing to play for(perhaps this was also the case in the Dublin-Westmeath game) so I'll not be getting ahead of myself, but it's always good to see a big score like that being racked up.