Laois 1-17 Carlow 1-9: Sometimes in the championship what you see is what you get. The crowds still spilling in after the throw-in, and spilling out before the final whistle.
Despite the beautiful sunshine and lively crowd of 14,550 it made for a lazy afternoon in Portlaoise, difficult at times to fight off the siesta - even those of us supposed to be paying close attention. In the end Laois set up their Leinster semi-final date with Dublin as expected, while Carlow's heavy defeat was still sinking in when they learned they'll face Meath in the qualifiers.
That could bring out the best in Carlow, because they didn't show it here. Manager Liam Hayes can also let them know a thing or two about his native county, and we may not have heard the last of Carlow this summer.
Laois definitely have further ambitions, starting with Dublin in three weeks' time. It was far from their best performance, but it was still good - and very good in patches. All six forwards had scored after 33 minutes, with Beano McDonald looking particularly sharp again, ending with 0-4, three from play.
Ross Munnelly and Gary Kavanagh were typically industrious and running free, while Donie Brennan did well at left-corner forward, hitting his 0-3 from play. While their defence comfortably handled Carlow's limited danger, Laois did look shaky at midfield. Pádraig Clancy was a little reckless with possession - hitting three poor wides - while Noel Garvan was replaced.
Laois got away with that here, but it could be a problem on the bigger stage. When the Walsh brothers, Patrick and Thomas, eventually got to grips at midfield Carlow played some of the better football, although by then Laois had already underlined the class divide on show.
Paul Lawlor, Brennan and Munnelly rocketed them into a 0-3 lead, and then on 12 minutes Brennan was awarded a dubious penalty. Three Carlow defenders surrounded him in the box, yet none of them appeared to pull him down. Referee John Geaney, however, reckoned someone did, and Fergal Byron strode up from his goal to convert. Laois were up 1-3 to 0-0 and never looked back.
It was a heavy and undeserved blow to Carlow so early in the game, yet they were struggling badly to get any possession, and didn't help matters when kicking several balls straight over the sideline.
Their opening score finally came on 24 minutes when Mark Carpenter finished a well-worked move involving Thomas Walsh, and they added three more without reply to close the gap to four points.
Laois' early sprint had slowed a little, and allowed Carlow to keep it competitive for the rest of the half - which ended 1-7 to 0-5. Yet they never got any closer than five points from then on.
Simon Rea's free-taking was impressive but the goal that Carlow really needed came over three minutes into added time. Substitute Brian Kelly caught Rea's free in front of goal, and again the referee saw a penalty when few others did. Rea converted but even the eight-point difference in the end hardly reflected the dominance of Laois.
Thomas Walsh had earlier made a dangerous run at goal that was blocked at the last stop by the Laois defenders, although if that was the threat of a Carlow response it was short lived. Laois displayed their class again by hitting four points in three minutes including the sweetest of strikes by McDonald.
The most exciting moment from then on was when a missing three-year-old was announced as found. Kavanagh and Brennan finished up with some impressive scores, and that left manager Mick O'Dwyer all smiles as usual.
"We're not going to run away with ourselves after that," said O'Dwyer. "We've some way to go yet. We'll have to improve again to take on the Dubs. That's a big game for us, but we'll be ready for them. We're going pretty well.
"We made a decision to get into the game quickly, and that work-rate proved successful. That's been a problem in the past. But the team played well all over the field, but certainly Beano is back to his best, and Donie was a revelation."
Laois are expected to have Billy Sheehan back for the Dublin game, and while Clancy left the field just before the end with a broken nose he'll be okay too.
Hayes, however, was anything but smiles as he summed up what happened for Carlow - and he started with the referee: "Their penalty was a real killer, and looked to be a very strange decision to me. I don't want to be a bad loser for one second, but I thought the referee was a disaster from start to finish. We were getting players booked like flies, including our entire full-back line. We made our own grave, but the referee filled it in very quickly. Still it wasn't much of a football game. We let them own the game in the first 20 minutes, and never got our heads into it.
"And we never really recovered after that. Once Laois got their confidence up they really put the pressure on us.
"But we're not leaving with our heads down. We took a good slap on the jaw today, but maybe that will make us realise a few things about ourselves. Our ambition is still to get back to Croke Park this year."
LAOIS: 1 F Byron (1-0, penalty); 2 A Fennelly, 3 C Ryan, 4 P McMahon; 5 D Rooney, 6 T Kelly, 7 J Higgins; 8 P Clancy, 9 N Garvan; 10 R Munnelly (0-4, one free), 11 C Conway (0-2, one free), 12 G Kavanagh (0-2); 13 D Brennan (0-3), 14 P Lawlor (0-1), 15 B McDonald (0-4, one free). Subs: 18 B McCormack for Ryan (half time, inj); 24 B Quigley for Garvan (53 mins); 20 I Fitzgerald (0-1) for Conway (58 mins); 23 D Murphy for Mullenny (66 mins).
CARLOW: 1 J Brennan; 2 T Smith, 3 B Farrell, 4 C McCarthy; 5 J Hayden (0-1), 6 J Byrne (0-1), 7 J Ryan; 8 P Walsh, 9 T Walsh; 10 B Carberry (0-1), 11 M Carpenter (0-1), 12 P Hickey (0-1, a free); 13 B Murphy, 14 S Rea (1-4, one penalty, five frees) 15 A Kelly. Subs: 17 B English for McCarthy (33 mins); 21 C Pender for Smith (44 mins); 28 B Kelly for Murphy (50 mins); 20 D Byrne for Carberry (53 mins).
Referee: John Geaney (Cork).
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