Schutte gets Dubs briskly on the road to victory
MARK SCHUTTE and Conal Keaney combined in thrilling fashion as Dublin got their Championship challenge back on track in Portlaoise.
The full-forward line duo blasted 3-4 between them while David O’Callaghan added a fourth goal late on at O’Moore Park.
The win secured Dublin’s place in tomorrow’s draw for Round 2 of the AllIreland qualifiers.
They will bring some much needed confidence into next weekend’s tie after crashing out of Leinster to Galway.
Schutte was on the case early with Dublin’s opening goal.
It took him just 30 seconds to wriggle free of a group of Laois defenders and bat cleverly to the net.
His second goal after seven minutes was a near carbon copy with a similar shortened hurl, improvised finish. This time the Cuala man seized possession with a brilliant catch from Johnny McCaffrey’s long free in.
A Dublin side showing six changes from the Galway game already led 2-2 to 0-1 and threatened a rout. But Laois showed real character to fight back to level terms by the 23rd minute.
Free-taker Zane Keenan scored five first-half points and Charles Dwyer found space for three to tie it up at 2-4 to 0-10.
Laois were getting plenty of joy from a defensive game plan where Brian Stapleton operated as a sweeper.
But Dublin redoubled their efforts and finished the half strongly to lead by five at the break.
Schutte added a point before playing a brilliant diagonal ball across goals for Keaney to dispatch a 32nd minute goal.
Laois struggled to cope with Eamonn Dillon. The speedy attacker was one of the players recalled and chipped in with four fine points from play.
Dublin led 3-9 to 0-13 at half-time and crucially had the stiff wind behind them for the second-half.
They restarted with points from Paul Ryan, Keaney and Dillon to go eight clear and never looked like being caught.
Still, it was poor fare at stages in the second-half and Dublin drove 20 wides in total in the game. At one stage there was no score from either side for 12 minutes approaching the hour mark.
Dublin finished strong at least with a fourth goal from sub O’Callaghan. Dublin: G Maguire; N Corcoran, C O’Callaghan, P Schutte; C Crummey, L Rushe, S Barrett (S Durkin 52); J McCaffrey, R O’Dwyer; C Boland (D O’Callaghan 60), E Dillon, D Sutcliffe (D Plunkett 71); M Schutte, C Keaney, P Ryan (D Treacy 70). Scorers: M Schutte 2-1, C Keaney 1-3, P Ryan 0-5 (4f), E Dillon 0-4, D O’Callaghan 1-0, S Barrett; J McCaffrey, R O’Dwyer, D Plunkett 0-1. Yellow card: P Ryan 43 laOiS: E Reilly; D Palmer, C Healy, B Stapleton (JA Delaney ht); J Fitzpatrick, M Whelan (PJ Scully 47), T Delaney; P Whelan, P Purcell (J Walsh 44); C Dwyer, T Fitzgerald (N Foyle 44), W Hyland; Z Keenan, S Maher (B Conroy), J Campion. Scorers: Z Keenan 0-6 (5f), W Hyland 0-4, C Dwyer 0-3, J Fitzpatrick, M Whelan, T Delaney, S Maher, J Campion, N Foyle 0-1. Referee: J Ryan (Tipperary)