Gilligan makes mark

Division One B/ Derry 1-11 Laois 1-11: An excellent long-range, injury-time point from Conleith Gilligan earned Derry a share of the spoils in an entertaining encounter at Celtic Park yesterday.

Padraic Clancy opened the scoring for Laois on four minutes and they quickly opened up a substantial lead. It was full forward Paul Lawlor who did most of the early damage in an amazing three-minute burst.

The Emo clubman took a pass from Darren Rooney to double the advantage on 11 minutes and 60 seconds later he exchanged passes with Chris Conway before driving the ball to the top corner of Shane O'Kane's net.

Lawlor's purple patch continued when he was played in by Brian McDonald to score a point.

On 16 minutes, Lawlor turned from score maker to score taker when feeding Conway, who pointed for a seven-point advantage.

Enda Muldoon's move to midfield steadied Derry and they got off the mark after 18 minutes when Barry McGoldrick pointed from 30 metres.

When Paddy Bradley took advantage of Laois hesitancy in the 24th minute to roll home an opportunist goal Derry were back in contention. A Bradley free further closed the gap but a late Ross Munnelly point saw Laois lead by three - 1-5 to 1-2 - at the break.

At the start of the second half the teams traded points three times, Brendan Quigley and Munnelly (twice), seeing their efforts mirrored by Gilligan and two from Bradley.

As the game entered the third quarter Derry took over and four points from Gilligan, Bradley and two from James Conway made it 1-9 to 1-8 in Derry's favour.

Laois levelled through substitute Quigley's second score but a 50-yard Gilligan point nosed Derry back in front with five minutes remaining.

Another Laois substitute Peter O'Leary levelled again for the visitors and it took a superb block from Kevin McCloy to deny Barry Brennan a match-winning goal.

Laois regained the advantage when Padraic McMahon pointed in the last minute of regulation time but another superb effort from Gilligan ensured the draw for Derry.

DERRY: S O'Kane; K McGuckin, K McCloy, R Murray; P O'Hea, S M Lockhart, G O'Kane; F Doherty, J Conway (0-2); B McGoldrick (0-1), C Gilligan (0-4, two frees), R Wilkinson; P Bradley (1-4, two frees), E Muldoon, Paul Bradley. Subs: M Lynch for McGoldrick (47 mins), Patsy Bradley for O'Kane (50 mins), J Diver for Wilkinson (57 mins).

LAOIS: M Nolan; C Ryan, K Fitzpatrick, J Higgins; P McMahon (0-1), D Rooney, B McCormack; P Clancy (0-1), N Garvin; G Kavanagh, C Conway (0-1), D Murphy; B McDonald, P Lawlor (1-2), R Munnelly (0-3). Subs: B Quigley (0-2)for Kavanagh (half-time), B Brennan for Conway (54 mins), B Sheehan (0-1)for Murphy (65 mins).

Referee: J White(Donegal).