TED JOYCE’S goal paved the way for Carlow to keep their promotion hopes alive — but Laois will play in Division 2 next season after this O’Moore Park defeat confirmed their relegation.
Tommy Fitzgerald’s hosts looked set to take the battle for survival to their last game when they went three points up entering the final ten minutes.
But Joyce netted to draw Carlow level and they outscored Laois by four points to one in the time that remained to take the fight to join Offaly in Division 1A next year to the final day.
Given they could also still have been relegated before this win, Carlow are in a good place.
Not so for Laois, with Fitzgerald sighing: “We are bitterly disappointed. We went hard at this game and we put ourselves in a position to win coming down the stretch.
“But they made better decisions than us and finished stronger.”
Paddy Boland fired in Carlow’s first goal and they might have had more were it not for some fine saves from Cathal Dunne.
Laois, without Cha Dwyer, Paddy Purcell and Eanna Lyons, relied heavily on the accuracy of Aaron Dunphy and his frees kept them in it as Carlow led by 1-13 to 0-14 at the half-time whistle.
The hosts dug in and Dunphy, PJ Scully and Aidan Corby helped them go two points up with a quarter of an hour to play.
But their momentum was killed stone dead when Joyce found himself in possession in front of Dunne and there was little the keeper could do to stop his drive to the net.
Scores from Donagh Murphy, Marty Kavanagh and Jon Nolan then saw Tom Mullally’s side take a decisive victory as they keep looking up.
CARLOW: B Tracey; P O’Shea, D Wall, P Doyle; F Fitzpatrick, K McDonald, J McCullagh; E Kealy 0-1, C Whelan 0-2; J Nolan 0-2, C Nolan 0-2, John Doyle 0-1; T Joyce 1-2, P Boland 1-1, M Kavanagh 0-13, 10f, 1’65. Subs: C Kehoe for Fitzpatrick 45mins; James Doyle 0-1 for Boland 48; D Murphy 0-1 for John Doyle 60.
LAOIS: C Dunne; D Conway, L Cleere, C Comerford; T Cuddy, P Delaney, J Walshe 0-2; FC Fennell 0-1, D Dooley; A Corby 0-3, T Keyes 0-3, A Dunphy 0-16, 12f; PJ Scully 0-3, M Dowling, C Byrne 0-1. Subs: D Hartnett for Delaney 30mins; J Keyes for Corby 55; J Duggan for Byrne 60; P Dunne for Cleere 68; W Dunphy for Dowling 70.
REFEREE: B Keon (Galway).
