Five-star Laois seal promotion

Laois sealed promotion to Division 3 with a bloodless defeat of Waterford at SETU Arena.

It was so easy for the O’Moore men that manager Justin McNulty took off free-scoring forwards Mark Barry and Evan O’Carroll after 26 minutes.

The full-forward line had scored 4-7 between them by that stage and afterwards McNulty said everyone in his camp was “just delighted to have got promotion”.

Four goals in 11 first-half minutes demoralised the hosts and the O’Moore men led by 20 points (4-8 to 0-0) after 22 minutes. Inside trio Barry (2-3), O’Carroll (13) and Paul Kingston (1-1) did the damage.

It took Waterford 25 minutes to register a point through Tom O’Connell and tThe scoreboard read 4-9 to 0-3 at half time.

Sub Rioghan Murphy rolled in a fifth goal six minutes after the restart as McNulty made a number of substitutions

SCORERS – Laois: M Barry 2-3; E O’Carroll, P Kingston 1-3 each; R Murphy 1-1 (1f); K Roche (2fs), E Lowry (2fs), B Daly (1f) 0-2 each; C Heffernan, S Fitzpatrick, N Dunne 0-1 each. Waterford: J Curry 0-4 (3fs); D Fitzgerald, T O’Connell (1m, 1f) 0-2 each, S Curry 0-1 (m). LAOIS: K Roche 7; B Dempsey 6, S Lacey 6, J Lacey 6; E Buggie 6, M Timmons 6, B Byrne 6; K Lillis 7, D Larkin 6; K Swayne 6, E Lowry 7, S Fitzpatrick 7; M Barry 9, E O’Carroll 9, P Kingston 9. Subs: B Daly 7 for O’Carroll (26), R Murphy 7 for Barry (26), N Dunne 6 for Fitzpatrick (h-t), S Fingleton 6 for Timmons (h-t), C Heffernan 6 for Lillis (52). WATERFORD: P Hunt 5; C McCarthy 5, C Walsh 5, C Ó Cuirrín 5; M Mullaney 5, D Ryan 5, R McGrath 5; M Curry 5, J Curry 6; J Power 5, S Curry 5, B O’Keeffe 5; W Beresford 5, T O’Connell 6, A Dunwoody 5. Subs: A Beresford 5 for Hunt (h-t), D Fitzgerald 6 for O’Connell (h-t), J Walsh 5 for Ryan (h-t), B Hynes 5 for W Beresford (h-t), J Keane for Mullaney (60). REF: D Hickey (Carlow).