Allianz National Hurling League, Division 1B: Dublin 1-29 Laois 0-20
Micheal Donoghue admitted Dublin are chasing vital consistency after signing off on an ‘okay’ National League campaign with a big win.
A week after being well beaten in Kilkenny, Dublin bounced back with a dozen-point win over a Laois side with one eye already on next weekend’s vital relegation play-off.
Alex Considine’s 15th-minute goal helped the hosts open up an early nine-point lead and he shot 1-3 in all before limping off with a worrying hamstring injury.
A scoreless third quarter from Dublin did allow Laois to reduce the gap to four points but that was as close as Willie Maher’s men got.
Dublin led 1-17 to 0-13 at the break and then went 19 minutes without scoring before hitting the afterburners with another 12 points.
That mix of intoxicating and infuriating play summed up the campaign for Donoghue.
“The key word for us is consistency, to be consistent in everything we do, and to get more consistent performances every day we go out,” said the Dublin boss.
“The league overall, it’s been okay. Obviously from my perspective you want to win every game and if you can’t that’s disappointing. There was probably the good, the bad and the ugly in it for us in different periods of games.”
On the Considine injury, Donoghue said they’ll assess it in the coming days. Time is on Dublin’s side as they don’t play Antrim in the Leinster SHC until April 22nd.
Attackers Dara Purcell, Fergal Whitely and Cillian Costello weighed in with seven points between them after coming on in the second-half.
Laois relied heavily on free-taker Stephen Maher who struck more than half their scores from placed balls.
“We didn’t take our chances, that’s the overall feeling,” said Laois manager Willie Maher. “Lads showed great heart for a match that meant nothing. Next Saturday is all we’re thinking of and probably all we’ve been thinking of for the last week.”
Dublin: S Brennan; D Keogh, Eoghan O’Donnell, P Doyle; C Donohoe, P Smyth, D Gray (0-1); C Burke (0-1), C O’Leary; C O’Sullivan (0-2), D Sutcliffe (0-1), C Boland (0-3); P Crummey (0-1), D Burke (0-10, 6f, 165), A Considine (1-3).
Subs: D Power for Considine 25, D Purcell (0-3) for Donohoe h/t, C Costello (0-2) for O’Leary 43, F Whitely (0-2) for O’Sullivan 60, A Mellett for Sutcliffe 68.
Laois: E Rowland; P Delaney, I Shanahan, P Dunne; L Senior, R Mullaney, D Hartnett; J Kelly (0-2), P Lalor; S Maher (0-11, 11f), A Corby (0-1), J Keyes (0-1); A Dunphy, W Dunphy, S Bergin (0-3).
Subs: R King for A Dunphy 43, P Purcell for Senior 43, T Keyes (0-1) for W Dunphy 50, PJ Scully (0-1) for Bergin 56, C Stapleton for Lalor 63.
Referee: S Hynes (Galway).
