Gaelic Games

Offaly hold off late Laois rally to make Leinster U21 final

Ciarán Farrell and Adam Mahon goals help Faithful County to first decider in a decade

Wed Mar 15 2017 - 21:24

Offaly 2-9 Laois 2-8

Goals from Ciarán Farrell and Adam Mahon fired Offaly through to a first EirGrid Leinster under-21 football final since 2007.

The Faithful County were made to fight all the way though and had just a point to spare at full-time having led by six with four minutes of normal time remaining.

Laois produced a frenzied finale that included a converted penalty from top scorer Seán Moore only to come up just short.

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Offaly, who will play Dublin or Longford in the March 29th final, fell behind 1-2 to 0-0 down early on following a 13th-minute Colm Murphy goal for Laois.

But seven early wides cost Laois who conceded a 19th-minute Farrell goal and trailed 1-5 to 1-3 at half-time.

Offaly thought they had wrapped it up after a wonderful Mahon goal in the 39th minute and led 2-8 to 1-5 after 56 minutes but were made to fight to the death.

OFFALY: B Rohan; C Horan, D Dempsey, C Doyle; A Mahon (1-0), C Stewart, PJ Daly; J Lalor, J Hayes (0-2, one free); C Farrell (1-1), P Dunican (0-2), J Walsh (0-1); R McEvoy, R McNamee, S Tierney (0-3, one free).

Subs: J Egan for Stewart (16 mins), K Higgins for McEvoy (47 mins), J Clancy for Dunican (53 mins, black card), C Brazil for Dempsey (58 mins, black card).

LAOIS: A Cooney; J Kelly, S Nerney, L Knowles; P O'Sullivan, E Buggie, T Collins; D O'Reilly, D Luttrell; C Whelehan, B Daly, D Connolly; B Byrne, S Moore (1-6, six frees, 1-0 pen), C Murphy (1-1).

Subs: A Carroll for Byrne (h/t), D Doyle for Connolly (41 mins), T Shiel (0-1) for Kelly (49 mins, BC).

Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).

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