Laois and Meath both enjoyed victories in the preliminary round of the Guinness Leinster Hurling Championship today, overcoming Carlow and Kildare respectively. It was a one-sided contest at Dr Cullen Park with Laois completely dominating proceedings and overcoming the challenge of Carlow with a 16-point winning margin. However, it came at a cost as the influential Niall Rigney was sent off following an off-the-ball incident 17 minutes into the second-half.
Laois were always in control and with goals from Darren Rooney and Declan Conroy and a string of unanswered points had them 2-08 to 0-00 clear before Carlow registered their first score two minutes from the break. In the second half, Carlow attempted a fightback and with three points and a goal from Damien Roberts they managed to reduce the deficit to ten points.
However, then came the sending-off and a further bizarre incident which saw play being held up for eight minutes. A Carlow player was stretchered off after a clash of hurls. It appeared that the linesman was struck in the same incident and he had to be replaced. After that unexpected hold-up, Laois continued to dominate play and fired home five unanswered points to qualify for the next round where they will take on Meath.
Meath had a more difficult task in beating Kildare in Clane this afternoon and it took a last-minute point in extra-time for them to secure their place in the next stage of the competition with a 2-25 to 2-24 victory. Neville Reilly proved to be the hero for Meath as he scored the equaliser at the end of normal time to level the scores at 1-18 apeice and send the match into extra-time. However, this was eclipsed in the dying seconds of the game as he struck the late winner for Meath.
In the opening stages of extra-time, it looked as if Kildare would cause an upset as they added a goal and three points to their tally and at the interval in extra-time, they enjoyed a five-point lead over their opponents. But Meath hit back and Nicky Horan reduced the deficit with several frees and a goal to put Meath in the lead. Tom Carew equalised for Kildare and it seemed that the match might be destined for a replay before Reilly struck again and devastated a spirited Kildare side that had battled hard throughout this tie.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
