{"id":442022,"date":"2026-05-10T17:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442022\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T17:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:20:26","slug":"laois-leave-wicklow-in-their-wake-in-tailteann-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442022\/","title":{"rendered":"Laois leave Wicklow in their wake in Tailteann Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Laois senior footballers made a winning start to the Tailteann Cup as they defeated Wicklow 1-23 to 0-19 in O’Moore Park on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

A really strong first half performance laid the foundation for the victory as Laois won by seven points in the end.<\/p>\n

Laois played with the wind in the first half and could have been out of sight by the 13th minute. Ronan Coffey had a chance cleared off the line by Gavin Fogarty and they squandered two three-on-two situations before Daragh Galvin got in one on one but Mark Jackson denied him.<\/p>\n

Wicklow actually took the lead via Mark Kenny but Laois responded via Rob Tyrrell and then went ahead thanks to Evan O’Carroll and keeper Matthew Byron.<\/p>\n

O’Carroll and Eoin Darcy then swapped points in the 15th minute which left Laois 0-05 to 0-03 ahead.<\/p>\n

Wicklow failed to score for the next 18 minutes and Laois used that period to add 1-08 to their tally. The goal they deserved arrived in the 18th minute when Ciaran Burke did extremely well to turnover the ball deep in the Laois half.<\/p>\n

That set up a counter attack involving Rob Tyrrell, Aaron McEvoy, Pa Kirwan and Daragh Galvin before O’Carroll smashed a left footed shot into the roof of the net.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe managers and All-Ireland winning former Armagh footballers Justin McNulty and Ois\u00edn McConville at full time<\/p>\n

Pa Kirwan scored twice while O’Carroll and Coffey both kicked two-pointers to ease Laois into a ten point lead after 28 minutes.<\/p>\n

Wicklow sub Joe Prendergast finally ended the Laois onslaught with a point before keeper Mark Jackson slotted an excellent two point free into the wind.<\/p>\n

But Laois keeper Byron replicated this as Laois took a 1-15 to 0-06 lead into half time.<\/p>\n

Laois were against the wind now but actually outscored Wicklow in the opening ten minutes of the new half.<\/p>\n

Kirwan, Cian Nolan, Galvin and Kevin Swayne all scored to extend Laois’s advantage. But Wicklow, aided by the wind, eventually started to make in-roads into the Laois lead and enjoyed a purple patch.<\/p>\n

Jackson kicked two two point frees as Wicklow scored eight in a row. Laois had a goal chance in there too as Jackson saved from Galvin but down the other end, Byron proved just as good as he denied Liam O’Neill.<\/p>\n

By the time Laois scored again in the 54th minute, an O’Carroll score after Paul Kingston had been denied by Jackson, the score was 1-20 to 0-14.<\/p>\n

Eoin Murtagh and Dean Healy slotted two-pointers for Wicklow but Laois kept ticking away. Swayne pointed and Kingston landed two frees as they held on for the win.<\/p>\n

They now join the winner’s section for Round 2 with the draw scheduled for Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Laois: Matthew Byron (0-04, 2tpf); Jack Lacey, Trevor Collins, Alex Mohan; Aaron McEvoy, Kevin Swayne (0-02), Paddy O’Sullivan; Rob Tyrrell (0-01), Conor Heffernan; Ciaran Burke, Ronan Coffey (0-03, 1tp), Pa Kirwan (0-03); Cian Nolan (0-01), Evan O’Carroll (1-06, 1tpf), Daragh Galvin (0-01). Subs: Simon Fingleton for Lacey (14), Paul Kingston (0-02 frees) for Galvin (48), Rioghan Murphy for McEvoy (52), Brian Byrne for Nolan (54), Niall Corbet for Kirwan (61)<\/p>\n

Wicklow: Mark Jackson (0-06, 3tpf); Tom Moran, Conall O Gallchobhair, Gavin Fogarty; Jacques McCall, Matt Nolan, Jonathan Carlin; Dean Healy (0-02, 1tp), Cathal Baker; Jack Hardy, Padraig O’Toole, Christopher O’Brien; Oisin McGraynor (0-03, 2f), Mark Kenny (0-02), Eoin Darcy (0-03, 3f). Subs: Joe Prendergast (0-01) for O Gallchobhair (29), Liam O’Neill for Hardy and Conor Fee for Baker (both ht), Eoin Murtagh (0-02, 1tp) for McCall (47), Paidi Kavanagh for Kenny (65).<\/p>\n

Referee: Barry Tiernan (Dublin)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Laois senior footballers made a winning start to the Tailteann Cup as they defeated Wicklow 1-23 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-442022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}