Laois made it three wins out of three at Netwatch Cullen Park and in the process, they established themselves as favourites to top Division 4.
They did it the hard way too coming back from a five-point deficit early in the second half to win by six.
Ten yellows, three reds and a red to a Carlow official suggests this was an ill-tempered encounter. It had a number of situations where players pulled and dragged out of each other but if there was even one punch thrown then that is all it was.
Referee Jonathan Hayes, admittedly had to contend with a series of niggly fouls early on which he punished quickly. This meant it was a stop-start encounter.
Carlow hit the front when they struck with a Colm Hulton goal on ten minutes. They extended the lead with a Darragh Foley free.
The visitors got off the mark with a Paul Kingston free in the 20th minute and by half-time they were level on 0-08 to 1-05. The dead-ball kicker pulled the strings for Laois in the heart of the Carlow defence and at the other end, the home side couldn't find a way through a solid rearguard which was manned by Mark Timmons.
Carlow made their move for victory right on the resumption when Conor Doyle burst forward and offloaded to Foley who pointed. The home captain added a free and when Mikey Bambrick made ground, Eric Molloy was on hand to rifle the ball past Scott Osborne in the Laois goal.
Instead of pushing on, Carlow had to contend with an immediate Laois revival. In all, they scored eight points on the trot. Brian Byrne, Kingston, Evan O’Carroll and Mark Barry set their stall with some great points and now their rivals were chasing the game.
Shane O’Neill landed a late point from a free for Carlow but it was never going to be enough as Byrne and Kingston completed the scoring with further points.
In those closing stages as players became frustrated, Brian Byrne of Laois and Shane Buggy of Carlow were given straight red cards. The two players looked incredulously at the match official.
Right at the end, Laois were reduced to 13 when Evan O’Carroll picked up red. The funny thing about it was this was anything but a dirty game.
Carlow: Ciaran Cunningham; Shane Buggy, Mikey Bambrick, Dara Curran; Seanie Bambrick, Jordan Morrissey, Conor Doyle; Niall Hickey (0-01), Colm Hulton (1-00), Jamie Clarke; Ross Dunphy (0-01), Darragh Foley (0-05, 3f), Conor Crowley.
Subs: Eric Molloy (1-00) for Crowley (26), Cormac Lomax for Hulton (58), Liam Roberts for M Bambrick (64), Shane O'Neill (0-01f) for S Clarke (64).
Laois: Laois: Scott Osborne: Sean Greene, Trevor Collins, Robert Piggott; Sean O’Flynn, Mark Timmons, Brian Byrne (0-02); Kieran Lillis, James Finn; Mark Barry (0-02), Paul Kingston (1-10, 7f), Patrick O’Sullivan; Eoin Lowry, Evan O’Carroll (0-03), Niall Corbet.
Subs: Darren O’Connor for Lowry (52), Niall Corbet for Murphy (58), Ciaran Burke for Swayne (71), Brian Daly for Barry (75).
Referee: Jonathan Hayes (Limerick).
