A crowd of less than 800 gathered in O’Moore Park to see Limerick beat Laois 1-14 to 0-13 in Div 1B of the National Hurling League.
It was the home side that made the better start, going two points ahead, a lead that could have been four if James Hooban had kept his rasping shot lower.
Laois, without star player James Young, had been tipped to struggle but with ten minutes gone they still had the upper hand on Limerick, albeit by the minimum of margins.
O’Moore Park was a windswept cauldron and Laois were coping the best with the poor conditions as Limerick had already clocked up six wides with just fifteen minutes elapsed.
Limerick started to get their game together midway through the opening half and hit three points in a row through Keane, O’Shaughnessy and Conor Fitzgerald. Laois kept plugging away however and drew level once more with a pointed Philip Russell free.
Brian Geary rose the roof with a point from all of eighty yards before an angled shot from Mark Keane put a goal between the sides. With the half coming to a close Limerick seemed to have gained the upper hand. Donie Ryan put them four to the good before another Philip Russell free rounded off the first half scoring.
Laois got the second half off to a great start with great individual points from Mark Rooney and Michael McEvoy to put just a point between the sides. Limerick were struggling to find the sort of form that saw them draw with Kilkenny as the Laois men fought tooth and nail for every ball.
Wides seemed the order of the day for the Shannonsiders before Andrew O’Shaughnessy eventually opened their second half account with a fine point after forty minutes.
The turning point of the game came with ten minutes remaining when substitute Donie Ryan pounced on a cross field ball from Andrew O’Shaughnessy to power to the net. Limerick now had a four point lead and looked home and hosed. Conor Fitzgerald rounded off the scoring on a day that saw Limerick run out four point winners.
