NFL Division 3
Laois v Antrim
Portlaoise- Saturday – 5.00pm
Antrim travel to Portlaoise on Saturday evening to face a Laois team who have been performing well this season and who proved too good for Andy McEntee’s Saffrons in the 2024 Tailteann Cup semi-final in Croke Park.
The sides last met in the league at Saturday’s venue back in 2022 and on that occasion a late Ryan Murray point earned Antrim a deserved share of the spoils and hopefully they can go one better at O’Moore Park on Saturday evening.
The Antrim team has undergone a lot of changes since that day back in February 2022 but Murray is one of the men still remaining. The Lamh Dhearg man has returned recently from a long term injury and is building his way back to full fitness and could be in line for a starting place.
Dermott McAleese was another who took part in that encounter back in 2022 and captains the side this year while Marc Jordan continues at the heart of the Antrim engine room and was excellent last week against Leitrim.
Despite losing to Fermanagh and Offaly, Antrim travel to Portlaoise on equal point to their hosts having recorded wins over Clare and Leitrim and a win for either side would see them handily placed for a push for promotion with two rounds remaining after Saturday’s fixture.
Antrim have been in decent form to date and that win over Clare at Corrigan on day one gave them a great start. They looked on their way to a second win away to Fermanagh but were eventually beaten by a point and the Antrim management will feel that that was one that got away from them.
The harsh dismissal of Conor Stewart, two minutes into the second half in Tullamore proved a major blow at a time when Antrim had finished the first half strongly to put themselves back into contention and when his mid-field partner, Conor Hand suffered a similar fate the wheels came off the wagon.
Last week’s comprehensive win over lowly Leitrim looks to have got Antrim back on track with Marc Jordan moving back to mid-field to be partnered by Eunan Quinn and dominating in that sector.
Indeed the Leitrim game marked the return of a number of players for the first time this year with Eogan McCabe and Niall Burns making a healthy contribution while Jack Leneghan had solid debut at centre half and Eunan Quinn getting through a lot of work at mid-field.
Conhuir Johnston was another to get some game time and looked dangerous when he was introduced, scoring a point and unlucky not to get a goal so the panel looks strong and will provide Andy McEntee with a welcome selection dilemma.
Laois will go into Saturday evening’s game smarting from a heavy defeat last weekend to Kildare where they were beaten by 12 points to the high flying Lily Whites.
Antrim shouldn’t read too much into that result however as Kildare have handed out similar defeats to all they have met this year and look certain to top the division.
Laois’ other defeat came at the hands of Offaly back on the 2nd February when they lost to Mickey Harte’s side by 5 points while their two win came against Leitrim and Sligo.
The Laois footballers picked up their second win of this season’s NFL Division 3 after a hugely impressive first-half performance back on the 16th February.
Having lost to Offaly in their first outing and then blowing Leitrim away this, it was felt would provide a better barometer of where they stood.
Laois started like a train and they were 0-7 to 0-1 up after a quarter of an hour and it was 0-14 to 0-4 by half time.
In all they had nine different scorers in the first half. Mark Barry was Sligo’s chief tormentor with five points while James Kelly kicked a two-pointer and Damon Larkin, Danny O’Reilly, Padraig Kirwan, Kevin Swayne, Killian Roche, Brian Byrne and Ben Dempsey all pointed from play.
As the second half got underway, Sligo did up their performance for spells and four two-point scores – where Niall Murphy and Alan McLoughlin were impressive – helped close the gap. But Laois always had a response.
Ben Barry kicked 0-11 against Sligo and with O’Reilly, Kirwan, Swane, Roche and Byrne carry the Laois threat on Saturday evening but Antrim with Eunan Walsh, Marc Jordan, Paddy McBride, Fionn Nagle, Ruairi McCann, Ryan Murray and the returning Conor Stewart all in good form this season, can gain a vital win.