Senior hurlers to face Galway in Croker final

Sun, 1st February 2015

DUBLIN 2-18 LAOIS 1-11

Dublin hurlers will face Galway in next Saturday's Walsh Cup final in Croke Park (5.0) the game provides the curtain-raiser to the NFL Division 1 meeting of Dublin and Donegal (7.0).

Ger Cunningham's men looked well on the road to this semi-final victory in O'Moore Park, Portlaoise by half-time when they held a 1-9 to 0-6 lead but finished the match with 14 men following the dismissal of Michael Carton with 20 minutes still remaining.

The deadball accuracy of David Treacy was central to Dublin's strong position as the Cuala man slotted five first half frees.

The goal arrived in the eighth minute when Conal Keaney fired to the net to add momentum to Dublin's impressive opening as Treacy (free), Keaney, Niall McMorrow and Cian Mac Giolla Bhríde had all struck points inside the opening six minutes.

Dublin got the opening five points on the restart from Keaney, three Treacy frees and another from Eamonn Dillon to move 11 points clear, 1-14 to 0-6.

However, Laois rallied and the sending off of Carton saw the game swing in their favour from a period and by the 53rd minute the O'Moore County men had cut the gap to 1-14 to 1-9.

An excellent Peter Kelly point arrested Dublin's slide before Dillon's goal three minutes from time eventually ended any faint hopes Laois had of staging a heroic comeback.

SCORERS - Dublin: D Treacy 0-9 (0-8f, 0-1 ‘65’), C Keaney 1-3, E Dillon 1-2 (0-1f), P Kelly 0-2, N McMorrow, C McBride 0-1 each. Laois: Z Keenan 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-3f), S Maher 0-2 (0-2f), M Whelan (0-1f), J Purcell, W Hyland, T Fitzgerald, PJ Scully, N Foyle 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: G Maguire; N Corcoran, M Carton, P Schutte; J McCaffrey, P Kelly, S Barrett; B Quinn, C McBride; C Keaney, E Dillon, M Schutte; N McMorrow, L Rushe, D Treacy. Subs: R O’Carroll for McBride (ht), C Murphy for Corcoran(ht), D Sutcliffe for McMorrow (56).

LAOIS: E Reilly; J Delaney, C Healy, C Dunne; J Fitzpatrick, M Whelan, J Campion; S Maher, D Palmer; J Purcell, T Fitzgerald, W Hyland; PJ Scully, N Foyle, B Conroy. Subs: Z Keenan for Palmer (ht), J Walsh for Purcell (ht), T Delaney for Maher (47), B Reddin for Conroy (62), C Stapleton for Fitzpatrick (69).

REF: P Murphy (Carlow).