Laois caught out by late scores

With two minutes remaining, Laois seemed home and dry when they led by two points in this thrilling under-21 game at Portlaoise on Saturday; however Meath snatched a late victory and denied Laois a place in the quarter-finals they thought they had secured.

It was surely an irony of the weekend's action at this level that two of the strongest Leinster teams in underage fare in recent years, Westmeath and Laois, have now exited the under-21 competition.

However, the Laois record at minor level, with two All-Ireland titles and another All-Ireland final appearance under their belts in recent years, has never translated to equal success at the higher underage level, although they did make the All-Ireland under-21 final only to lose to Kerry.

In this game Meath, who are something of a coming power at underage level themselves and reached the final last year only to lose to neighbours Westmeath, dominated the opening exchanges. They led 0-3 to 0-1 after 10 minutes.

Laois improved greatly and at half-time took the lead on a scoreline of 0-6 to 0-5. In the third quarter the home team added two further points and they looked well on the road to reaching the next round.

However, Meath brought in two substitutes who turned the game - first Alan Fox scored a point with his first touch and two minutes from time his fellow substitute Martin Doran caught a rebound and scored the game's only goal.

Meath's Barry Lynch then pointed a free to give last year's finalists, a quarter-final place against another neighbouring county, Louth.

MEATH: D Gallagher; D Clarke, H Griffin, R Kelly; J Donoghue, N Kennedy, S Kenny; G Loughran (0-3), C Travers; C Reynolds, M Ferris, B Lynch (0-1); B Dillon (0-1), D Crimmons, T Loughran (0-1). Subs: S Bray for Kenny; A Fox (0-1) for Dillon; M Doran (1-0) for T Loughran; C McCarthy for Ferris.

LAOIS: M Nolan; P Phelan, C Byrne, B Gaynor; P Leonard, A Fennelly, J O'Neill; B Fitzpatrick (0-1), P Clancy (0-2); B McCormack, K Kelly (0-2), M Dunne; B McDonald (0-2), J Behan, M Clancy (0-1). Sub: D Miller for Behan.

Ref: B Duff (Kildare).