Wexford carried too much forward power for a hardworking Laois side in what turned out a rather lack-lustre Division 1B game at Gorey yesterday.

The real turning point of this torrid affair came 15 minutes into the second half. It was a case of the two veterans of the Wexford attack linking up as Martin Storey picked out Tom Dempsey with a long cross-field ball and the corner forward cooly flicked it beyond the reach of goalkeeper, John Lyons, for a goal which helped the home side to a 1-10 to 0-7 lead.

An early Laois lead was quickly wiped out as Wexford responded with points from a Chris McGrath free and a long range effort from midfielder, Rod Guiney. Another McGrath free on 13 minutes edged the home side into a one point lead.

The closeness of the scoring led to some entertaining fare in the first half, with the accuracy of McGrath adding two Wexford points, and Laois responded with points from Cyril Cuddy and Joe Phelan to send the sides in level 0-6 each at the interval.

While Laois showed great resolve as Wexford stepped up their game in the second half, but it was only a matter of time before the home side got the breakthrough. Wexford scored the three opening points through McGrath, Storey and substitute Michael Jordan to edge into a three point lead 0-9 to 0-6 after just 46 minutes.

McGrath added a 14th minute free for Wexford, and it was Dempsey's 15th minute goal which virtually put the game out of Laois' reach.

WEXFORD: D Fitzhenry; C Kehoe, D Berry, S Flood; R McCarthy, L Dunne, D Ruth; R Guiney (0-1), R Hassey; J Lawlor, M Byrne, J Kenny; C McGrath (0-8), M Storey (0-1), T Dempsey (1-0). Subs: M Jordan (0-3) for Kenny, L Leacy for Guiney, R Quigley for Lawlor.

LAOIS: J Lyons; PJ Peacock, S Dooley, D Dowling; E Browne, P Mahon (0-1), L McGrath; C Cuddy (0-1), D Conroy (0-1); J Phelan (0-1), A Bergin (0-1), D Russell (0-1); J Young (0-3), O Dowling, A Coffey. Sub: R Jones for Coffey.

Referee: P Horan (Offaly).