McManamon and O Conghaile's late heroics seal deal

McManamon and O Conghaile’s late heroics seal deal

Sun, 11th January 2015

DUBLIN 1-12 LAOIS 1-11

Dublin maintained their early season winning streak when they edged out Laois in a dramatic finish at McCann Park, Portarlington in Sunday’s Bord na Móna O’Byrne Cup Group A tie.

The Dubs, who had already guaranteed their semi-final berth prior to throw-in, now face Meath in Navan next Sunday (2.0) in the last four as several frontline Dublin footballers made a return to action including Jonny Cooper.

For the third game running Dean Rock was Dublin’s top scoring as the Ballymun Kickhams man finished with a tally of six points (including five frees) before being substituted just before the midpoint of the second half.

However, it was Kevin McManamon’s 67^th minute penalty, after Shane Carthy had been fouled, and Emmett O Conghaile’s booming injury-time point, his third from play, that saw Dublin record their third win from three starts.

The O'Moore County looked set to snatch victory when Brendan Quigley goaled four minutes from time to propel his side into a 1-10 to 0-11 lead by only two minutes later McManamon converted from the penalty spot to nose Jim Gavin's men back in front.

The sides were level 0-6 at the break after the home side had played with the advantage of the wind - Rock with four frees, Cormac Costello and the industrious Tomás Brady accounted for Dublin's scorers in the opening 35 minutes.

SCORERS - Dublin: D Rock 0-6 (0-5f), K McManamon 1-1 (1-0 pen), E Ó Conghaile 0-3, C Costello, T Brady 0-1 each. Laois: D Kingston 0-7 (0-6f), B Quigley 1-0, P McEvoy, C Kelly, M O’Halloran, J O’Loughlin 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: L Molloy; M Fitzsimons, E Culligan, D Daly; G Hannigan, J Small, N Devereux; D Bastick, E Ó Conghaile; T Brady, D Rock, S Carthy; P Ryan, C Costello, K McManamon. Subs: R O’Carroll for Daly (ht), J Cooper for Hannigan (ht), P O’Higgins for Bastick (45), P McMahon for Culligan (52), N Scully for Rock (52), H Dawson for Ryan (60).

LAOIS: E Culliton; R Kehoe, M Timmons, G Hanrahan; D Strong, P Begley, P McEvoy; J O’Loughlin, B Quigley; J Finn, D Kingston, B Sheehan; K Meaney, M O’Halloran, C Kelly. Subs: G Dillon for Finn (45), A Campion for Kehoe (52), C Lennon for O’Halloran (60), G McEvoy for Hanrahan (black card 68).

REF: C Reilly (Meath).