Down 2-14 Laois 1-15:DOWN TRAVELLED to Portlaoise on Saturday and by half-time had scored two goals and 11 points, the goals coming from John Clarke after nine minutes and Benny Coulter 10 minutes before the interval.
Laois then replaced captain Darren Rooney with Mark Timmons. They did finish the half strongly with three points from Colm Parkinson and two from Donie Kingston as Down led at the break by 2-11 to 0-8.
On the restart Laois made two further changes. Out went Pádraig McMahon and Colm Kelly with Ross Munnelly and David Murphy coming on. Munnelly opened the second-half scoring with a point from a free.
Kingston added two Laois scores, the first being a goal, but then then came what could have been a turning point as Down midfielder Dan Gordon received a straight red card after appearing to swing out at Pádraig Clancy.
The Ulster side regrouped, however, and scored a vital point from Ronan Murtagh but he was immediately replaced by Declan Rooney and a point from Brian McCormack left four points separating the teams with 20 minutes remaining.
The Laois defence then took command and their attack reduced the deficit to two with five minutes remaining.
Down then added their third point of the half from Kevin McKernan and now Laois had to score a goal as the game entered injury-time. They did get a chance to when a ball fell kindly for Michael J Tierney, who left footed from six metres but his shot grazed the crossbar on the upper side to leave two dividing the sides but time ran out and it was a relieved Down side that celebrated.
After the game Down manager Ross Carr was very critical of the sending off of Gordon saying his captain had been targeted by Laois midfielder Clancy.
DOWN: B McVeigh; L Howard, M Cole, K McGuigan; A Carr (0-4), C Murney, P Murphy (0-1); D Gordon, A Rodgers (0-1); K McKernan (0-3), B Coulter ((1-2), D Hughes (0-1); J Clarke (1-0), R Murtagh (0-1), J Fegan (0-1). Subs: D Rooney for R Murtagh (45 mins), P Turley for M Cole (inj, 20 mins), J Lynch for J Fegan (48 mins), S Kearney for P Murphy (58 mins), R Sexton for J Clarke (50 mins).
LAOIS: M Nolan; C Healy (0-1), D Rooney, J Higgins; P OLeary, T Kelly, P McMahon; P Clancy, B Quigley; B Brennan (0-1), B McCormack (0-3), B Sheehan; C Parkinson (0-1), C Kelly (St Joseph's), D Kingston (1-5); Subs: M Timmons for D Rooney (25 mins), R Munnelly (0-1) for C Kelly (half-time), D Murphy for P McMahon (half-time), MJ Tierney (0-3) for B Brennan 50 (mins), C Kelly (Stradbally) for B McCormack (60 mins).
Referee: D Fahy (Longford).
