Improving Dubs blast past Laois men

THE Dublin hurlers might have endured a tough League campaign up to this point but manager Pat Gilroy is happy his side are improving after they proved far too strong for Laois in O’Moore Park. Their 15-point win means they play Tipperary in a League quarter-final while Laois must make the trip to Antrim for a relegation play-off. Donal Burke scored 11 points for Dublin with Ronan Hayes hitting 2-4 in an impressive display Having lost three of their opening four games under Gilroy, Dublin had to win or they’d have faced a relegation play-off against Antrim. ‘Today was an important game for us,’ said Gilroy after the game. ‘We really needed to get a big performance. We got a massive amount of work out of the team today, and I think we really built from the performance the last day. We felt we had turned the corner a little bit against Galway. ‘Getting another game, and a quarter-final — it’s another competitive outing. We’re looking forward to it. Can’t wait to play it actually.’ Playing with the breeze, Dublin set the tone from the start, hitting five points in the opening six minutes and going 1-9 to 0-2 up by the 20th minute, the goal coming from Ryan O’Dwyer. Laois rallied somewhat but with Donal Burke and Ronan Hayes impressive, Dublin led 1-13 to 0-6 at the break. Laois battled on well with PJ Scully to the fore but Hayes got two late goals and there was no doubting the result. DUBLIN: A Nolan; P Smyth, B O’Carroll, E O’Donnell; S Barrett, C Crummey, J McCaffrey; C Costello, F McGibb; D Burke, C Keaney, D Sutcliffe; R Hayes, R O’Dwyer, P Winters. Subs: J Madden for Barrett (inj - 24), C O’Sullivan for O’Dwyer (47), P Ryan for Winters (58), R McBride for Keaney (63), C McBride for Costello (67). Scorers: D Burke 0-11 (6f, 1 ‘65), R Hayes 2-4, R O’Dwyer 1-1, F McGibb 0-2, C Keaney, D Sutcliffe, P Ryan, C McBride, J McCaffrey 0-1 each LAOIS: E Rowland; J Phelan, L Bergin, L Cleere; P Lawlor, M Whelan, E Killeen; J Ryan, P Purcell; B Conroy, C Dwyer, W Dunphy; R King, N Foyle, M Kavanagh. Subs: C Stapleton for Cleere (20), PJ Scully for Kavanagh (33), C Taylor for Killeen (33), E Lyons for Purcell (69), C Phelan for J Phelan (69). Scorers: PJ Scully 0-6 (5f), C Dwyer and R King (2f) 0-3 each, N Foyle 0-2, P Purcell, B Conroy and E Rowland (f) 0-1 each. Referee: Patrick Murphy.