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Paddy Andrews scores 3 points as Dublin Minors defeat Laois - Sun, 30 Jan 2005

Dublin 1-11 Laois 0-8

Dublin minor footballers got their Leinster minor football league off to an impressive start with a win over Laois at Stradbally on Saturday afternoon. The Dubs looked particularly sharp in the first half and it was Dublin?s half-forward line led by Russell Cleere who inflicted the most damage on a sluggish Laois defence.

Cleere ghosted in behind the defence in the 17th minute to receive a long delivery from Shane O'Rorke and put the ball past Colm Nestor in the Laois goal. Dublin had led 0-5 to 0-3 prior to the goal which pushed them five points clear - a lead they were never to relinquish. Paddy O'Connor was outstanding in that opening period from play and picked up a lot of ball out the field as well as contributing two points.

Apart from Cleere's goal the other highlight of the half was the centre-forward?s free-taking. The St Sylvester's man tucked away a '45' in the 16th minute and launched a massive 55-metre free over the crossbar on the stroke of half-time. Laois were playing catch?up from there on in. They switched Brian Meredith from left to right corner-back in an attempt to curb O'Connor and made some other positional switches in an attempt to lift their challenge.

However Shane O'Connor and Cathal Og Greene could never get enough possession at midfield to cause the Dubs any real problems. Mark Loftus, Barry Cullen and Peter O'Callaghan when introduced for Dublin were generally in command in this sector and when Laois had Mark Delaney sent off for a second yellow card in the 19th minute the result was never in doubt.

The only goal chance of the second half fell to Dubin?s Daniel Keating who elected to point when one-on-one with the Laois goalkeeper in the 42 minute.Points from O'Connor in the 49th minute and Paddy Andrews in the 59th minute maintained a healthy lead for the Dubs.

In defence Alan Hubbard was outstanding as was centre half-back John McCaffrey. However, a worry for Dublin manager John Horan will be the injury to the Dublin full-back David Keogh who suffered a late challenge in the 48th minute and had to leave the field. Dublin face Westmeath in a home tie in next Saturday's Leinster MFL action.

Scorers- Dublin: R Cleere 1-2 (0-1f,0-1 '45'), P O'Connor (0-2f), P Andrews 0-3 each; S O'Rorke, S Tormey, D Keating 0-1 each. Laois: S Conroy, D Carroll (0-1f) 0-3 each, D Meredith 0-2.

Dublin - Eoin Summerville; Conor Connolly, David Keogh, Alan Hubbard; Darren Daly, John McCaffrey, Kevin Nolan; Mark Loftus, Barry Cullen; Shane O'Rorke, Russell Cleere, Stephen Tormey; Keith Manley, Paddy Andrews, Paddy O Connor.

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