Killeshin cruise past Emo to advance to the last eight of Laois SFC

Killeshin are into the quarter-finals of the Laois Shopping Centre Senior Football Championship after they had too much for Emo in Saturday evening's Round 3 contest in Laois Hire O'Moore Park.

The victors were by far the better team and thoroughly deserve to have their name in the hat for the last eight.

Killeshin 0-16

Emo 1-7

Killeshin started the brighter of two sides as they held an early two-point advantage with three minutes on the clock. Evan English kicked both scores for Killeshin. It would be 16 minutes before Killeshin would score again as Emo kicked four scores in that time. Ross Meredith got Emo off the mark from play before raising two more white flags, one from a free. Paul Lawlor scored a free sandwiched in between Meredith's scores.

Killian Roche came forward to kick two scores in a row with both of them being frees. Niall Gorman nearly scored a worldie of a goal as he shot just went wide of Roche's right-hand post. The Killeshin goalkeeper was brought up field to point a third placed ball. Killeshin almost had a goal had it not been for Eoin Butler as he made a great one-on-one save from Adam Deering. Roche's accuracy from placed balls continued as he kicked the resulting 45'. Michael Doran opened his account just before half-time to give Killeshin a three-point advantage.

Emo cut the deficit and levelled the game from the next kick-out as Darren Strong went on a great run and smashed the ball high into the net to give Killian Roche no chance of stopping it. Evan Lowry pointed a free in the 32nd minute to give Killeshin a slender but deserved one-point lead at the break.

The second-half was all one-way traffic with Killeshin dominating possession. Adam Deering got them off the mark in the second period before Colm Poole pointed a mark after a pass into him by Darren Strong. It would take Emo a further 16 minutes to register a score as Killeshin kicked the next three points without reply. Eoin Lowry added a point after Eoin Montague had made a great block from an Evan English effort on goal. Evan Lowry pointed a free with Evan English got his third of the contest to give his side a four-point lead.

Cian Langford finally broke Emo's scoring drought with a well-taken score from long-range. Eoin Lowry (free) and a mark from Michael Doran was followed by a Nigel Murphy point for Emo as Killeshin were still ahead by four with seven minutes to play. A fourth free and a fifth score on the night from Roche alongside a point from Eoin Lowry proved to be the insurance scores for their side as Killeshin ran out six-point winners to advance to the quarter-finals. Emo ended the game with 14 men as Paul Lawlor was shown a black card for protesting a decision with referee Des Cooney.