'At the end of the day it’s just two points on the board'- Laois GAA's Ross Munnelly

Laois football selector Ross Munnelly was tasked with speaking to the media after Saturday’s game with Justin McNulty passing the duties to his right-hand man.

Munnelly feels that although it’s four points from four, it’s all about the next game and adding more points to their name against Carlow.

“I suppose it's four points on the board after two games so we have got a lot more points to get over the coming weeks, so we just have to get back to training next week and work hard. The performance was good in spells, but we have plenty to work on, at the end of the day it’s just two points on the board so we have got to keep motoring and getting points on the board if we want to keep developing and keep getting stronger and stronger,” he said.

Laois’ goal came at a crucial time with the goal giving them an eight-point advantage at half-time and put them in the driving seat for the remainder of the contest.

“The way the game finished out, we probably did equally on each other’s kick-outs, and the goal came at the right time for us, just before half-time. It was a really well worked goal, Corbet’s pass over to Shaun Fitz was brilliant and we were able to finish with the goal so that put us into the driving seat coming into half-time. As I said it’s about getting back in now on Tuesday night and just trying to make ourselves better in every department,” Ross said.

Laois make it two wins from two in the league with victory over Wexford

Laois’ goalkeeper Killian Roche was at his brilliant best again with the Killeshin shot-stopper adding five more points to his name to take his tally to 10 points in the league so far. His third 45’ was a superb score from out near the sideline.

“The goalkeeping unit, the three of them are working really hard together. Conor (Brown), Aaron (Cooney) and Killian, are working with James every night in training and are just pushing each other on. That performance out there today represents what the three of them are doing every night in training. Every single one of them are doing everything right for Laois football. Look, you are only as good as your last game; we are going into game three now with a seriously tall order and we just have to get ourselves reset and get our focus on that,” Munnelly said.

Laois have cruised through their opening two games with Munnelly feeling that the biggest test for this side is when things aren’t going to plan and how they react to that.

“There are nights where things come together for you and there’s nights where they don’t so we just have to be on our guard for nights where things aren’t smooth and aren’t cohesive. That is going to be the test for us, how do we react when maybe things aren’t going according to plan and that’s the test out there for all of us with our first year together. As I said the only thing up for grabs today was two points, we have got to dust ourselves down and recover next week, we have some injuries that we are trying to get right and then we go again for round three,” he said.

Laois looked to have suffered two injuries on the night as Portlaoise men Damon Larkin and Kevin Swayne had to be replaced.

“Nothing serious but we heading into a stage now where it's going to be three games week on week on week and there’s going to be attrition but, you saw tonight we got to use a lot of fresh faces, some got to make their debut and we got more guys on last week so it is about keeping everybody on the squad getting game time as best we can so as I said when the darker days do come that we have to be ready to battle that too,” he said.

Munnelly knows that nothing is guaranteed in the division having seen Laois win their first three games last year and still not get promoted.

“These guys as a group last year got ten points and lost out on the promotion on the head-to-head, we have a long way to go yet to even get to the same amount of points as last year so we are just trying to come into training every night and try and get better. We have a huge turnover in the squad and the onus is on every single one of us to push each other and test each other to try and get better every single minute that we are together,” he said.

Laois flew out of the blocks at the beginning of the game with them firing over the first four scores while keeping Wexford scoreless until the 12th minute.

“Listen, I think any day you want to get a good start and some days it goes for you and some days it can click. Last week we were a little bit slower out of the blocks even though we had the wind with us but a credit to the lads, they came back in last week and there was a real hunger in the group. I will be expecting the very same when we go in next week to just keep trying to improve. I know I am repeating myself, but that is what this game is about. If you take your eyes off any game in this league and you are punished, you are putting yourself under fierce pressure and as I said, the lads got ten points last year and weren’t promoted so we have to just go back and play every game on its merits and just as I said try and improve and everything else will look after itself,” he said.

Shaun Fitzpatrick was Laois’ top-scorer on the night from play as the Ballyroan-Abbey forward scored 1-2. Munnelly says that if they see talent and dedication in younger players, that they’ll get their chance to shine with Laois.

“You can see from the group we are looking at so many players across Laois and we’ve gone through a lot of trialling guys and giving them opportunities and where we see younger players that have shown all of the right materials for playing with the team, we are prepared to look at them. Things are going reasonably well for Shaun at the moment because he is working hard and he has got his head down and he knows the amount of guys that are pushing for places and even experienced guys that want to try to get back in the team. When you have competition, you have high quality of training and that is what we keep having to repeat,” he ended.

Laois have a break of a week before welcoming Carlow to Laois Hire O'Moore Park on Saturday, February 17.