THERE was never a chance that Laois would lose this Division Two clash at Casement Park yesterday, but Antrim battled bravely until the final whistle.

However, the 2-15 to 1-11 scoreline which sends Laois into a league quarter final battle with Kilkenny was richly deserved. With a strong defence and a clever attack the Leinster side showed some neat touches, and when Antrim hit a shock goal three minutes from time the winners stormed back for PJ Cuddy to hammer in a goal at the other end.

This suggested that Laois could open up whenever they felt threatened and indeed their overall standard of play was much better than Antrim, who failed in attack.

Indeed it was thanks to some stirring defensive play by full back Owen Colgan and half backs Terence McNaughton and Ronan Donnelly that Antrim held out so well. Their attack lacked cohesion, and of the 11 points they scored six of them came from frees by Conor McCambridge.

Ant rim opened the scoring with a long range point from midfield man Jim Connolly, but Laois rattled home 1-4 without reply in an eight minute spell from the seventh onwards. The goal came at the end of the first quarter from Thomas Kenna, who took a long delivery from defence, turned his marker and shot home.

Ant rim upped the ante somewhat, but the point scoring of Niall Rigney and David Cuddy always gave Laois the initiative. They led 1-8 to 0-7 at half time, with Conor McCambridge keeping Antrim in touch with five points from frees in that first half.

On the resumption, David Cuddy fired over two further Laois points to keep the pressure on the home side after Antrim, missed a couple of excellent chances of closing the gap.

They pulled one point back thanks to Aidan McCluskey, but then three more Laois points without reply left the visitors 13 to 0-8 ahead with 10 minutes to go.

For the next six minutes Antrim had the best of the exchanges, scoring two points and goal, but in a final flourish Laois hammered home their advantage with PJ Cuddy's goal and a point from Owen Coss.

The left wing of the Laois defence John Taylor and John O'Sullivan was excellent, and Niall Rigney's long range free taking was superb. Up front, David Cuddy, Fionan O'Sullivan and Kenna were always dangerous.

A somewhat over officious referee was busy with his book and pencil as be jotted down no less than seven names four of them from Laois but the game was never at any time in the rough and tumble mould.