Mattie Kenny targets areas of improvement over course of league campaign

Dublin hurlers will hope to bounce back from last Saturday's HL Division 1 B defeat when they travel to face Laois in O'Moore Park, Portlaoise this Saturday (5.0) in their second game of their league campaign.

The concession of a goal and the sending off of Liam Rushe (second yellow card) in the last quarter saw Dublin's challenge fade against the Cats who ran out five-point winners (1-20 to 0-18) at Parnell Park.

Reflecting on the contest Dublin manager Mattie Kenny said: "All spring they were working in the gym and working on their running and in fairness to them they came back in good shape.

“What we need to do now is sharpen up on our hurling, on our execution and our touch. Over the next few weeks in the league we’ll improve in that area.

“It was a good performance from both sides. Kilkenny deserved it in the finish,” added Mattie.

Dublin and Laois are very familiar with each other having met on three occasions last year alone - Championship, League and Walsh Cup.

Last October Dublin defeated Laois 2-31 to 0-23 in their Leinster SHC quarter-final at Croke Park.

Coming up to the first water break the Dubs led 0-7 to 0-6 but points from Donal Burke, a free after a foul on Ronan Hayes, Rian McBride and Chris Crummey after linking with Davy Keogh put Mattie Kenny's men 0-10 to 0-6 clear.

Donal Burke's accuracy was to have a major impact on proceedings as he hit 1-16 overall, including 10 frees and two 65s. His scores came from a variety of distances and angles and he also provided the assist on other occasions in a stellar performance.

The Na Fianna man's goal came in the 27th minute when he raced through the Laois defence from 50 metres before applying a great finish as the angle tightened.

Before the interval Dublin moved clear with Burke converting his two 65s and Cian Boland grabbing one from play to lead 1-16 to 0-12.

The Dubs restarted well with three Donal Burke frees extending their advantage before Danny Sutcliffe hit his second point and now the boys in blue were 11 points clear and on their way to victory.

In last year's HL Division 1B Dublin defeated Laois 4-18 to 2-17 after hitting three goals in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, two of them coming inside a minute early on, to drive them to victory over the O'Moore County in Parnell Park.

Dublin held a three-point lead at the break, 1-11 to 1-8, and Laois closed the gap immediately on the restart with a Ciarán McEvoy point.

However, goals from Oisín O’Rorke and Davy Keogh in quick succession in the 37th minute put Dublin on the road to victory.

Fifteen minutes into the second half the influential Ronan Hayes grabbed Dublin’s fourth goal, following an athletic fetch, and when sub John Hetherton added a point, following a fine catch the home side were 4-13 to 1-12 clear.

They were never under threat thereafter despite the concession of a late goal to Willie Dunphy.

Earlier in the season the counties clashed in a rescheduled Walsh Cup game in early January, also at the Donnycarney venue, with the Dubs prevailing 1-28 to 0-17.

Dublin put in a strong last 15 minutes to secure what was the third victory of their Walsh Cup group stage to finish the group stage as winners following successes against Westmeath, Carlow and Laois and progressed to face Galway in the semi-final.