Sport

Young Dubs in the driving seat

First half goals from Graham Morris and Patrick McAvinue proved the foundation for Dublin's 2-12 to 2-8 victory over Laois in…

Mon May 13 2002 - 01:00

First half goals from Graham Morris and Patrick McAvinue proved the foundation for Dublin's 2-12 to 2-8 victory over Laois in Saturday's Leinster Minor Hurling Championship round-robin clash at O'Moore Park, Portlaoise.

Morris' goal gave Dublin the start they needed after just four minutes. After a fine fielding 30 yards from the goal, Morris soloed to the edge of the square before crashing the ball to the back of the net.

A minute later a shot from Gearoid Keogh was parried by the goalkeeper into the path of Patrick McAvinue who simply tapped the ball to the net. Further points from Keogh and Michael Griffin (two) gave Dublin a four-point lead at the break.

Although Laois had only two points on the board inside the 30 minutes, three frees in injury time by the accurate John Brophy gave the O'Moore boys some hope for the second half.

READ MORE

And after the break Laois enjoyed the better possession. A goal by Brophy in the sixth minute and points by Sean Cotter and Barry Fitzgerald levelled it at 2-4 to 1-7.

Dublin then regrouped and hit a sparkling patch from the 13th to the 16th minute of the half, scoring three points through Aidan Glennon, Graham Morris and Padraig Fleury.

However, a well-worked goal for Laois levelled matters again, with the shot finished brilliantly by Sean Cotter. So it required some fiery hurling from Michael Carton, Ronan Fallon and the score of the game from Padraig Fleury pointing from the sideline fifty yards from goal, to put the Dubs back in the driving seat.

Dublin are back in Portlaoise next Saturday in their round robin play-off game with Carlow.

SCORERS: Dublin - G Morris 1-2, P McAvinue 1-1, M Griffin (1f) 0-3, G Keogh, A Glennon, P Fleury 0-2 each; Laois - J Brophy 1-3 (3f), S Cotter 1-1, J Rowney, D Bergin, B Fitzgerald, J Hoban 0-1 each.

KILDARE put in a storming second half display at Clane to claim a 3-12 to 3-4 victory over Meath on Saturday.

However, Meath had the better of the exchanges in the opening half with Michael Burke securing a goal after Adrian Cahill had opened Kildare's account with a converted free.

Kevin Fitzmaurice got Meath's second goal and they led by 2-2 to 1-3 at half time. Stephen Moran underpinned their superiority with a point on the restart but the floodgates opened when Cahill pointed three times without reply for Kildare and Tomas Ryan added a goal.

Stephen Clinch got a second half goal for Meath but Kildare finished the game with an uninterrupted 1-5, more than enough to see them through.

SCORERS: Kildare - T Ryan 2-0, A Chaill 0-6 (4f), M Divilly 0-3, C Doyle 1-0, T Murphy, P Ryan and T Fitzpatrick 0-1 each; Meath - K Fitzpatrick 1-2, M Burke 1-1, S Clinch 1-0, S Moran 0-1.

At Mullingar: Offaly 5-26 (T Bennett 2-2, M Dwane 1-7, S Delaney 1-2, D O'Grady 0-5, C Egan 0-4, E Bevans, S Carroll 0-3 each, K Athir 1-0) Westmeath 1-1 (P Collins 1-0, A Corrigan 0-1)

At Carlow: Carlow 7-21 (M Ralph 4-2, P Kehoe 2-9, J Murphy 0-3, R Minchin 1-1, B Murphy 0-2, B Cox, D Phelan, P Nolan 0-1), Wicklow 0-4 (A Tiernan 0-3, JJ Darcy 0-1).