Archer fires U17s to Leinster semi-final victory over Laois

Tue, 18th July 2017

Dublin's under-17 footballers edged out Laois 1-16 to 1-14 in Tuesday night's Leinster U17FC semi-final at O'Moore Park, Portlaoise.

The Dubs led by seven points, 1-12 to 1-5, early in the second half but made sweat all the way to the final whistle four minutes into added time before they could relax with late points from John Foley and Dublin minor Ciaran Archer seeing the Dubs to victory.

Dublin face Meath, who defeated Kildare 2-13 to 1-12 in their semi-final, in the inaugural provincial final at this grade (Saturday, Drogheda, 1.30).

The counties met already in the opening round with a very impressive Meath prevailing 1-10 to 1-5 after outclassing the Dublin in the opening quarter to build a 0-8 to 0-0 advantage.

But the young Dubs have found their feet since then to record victories over Offaly and Westmeath before this semi-final win against Laois.Dublin led 1-11 to 1-5 after an entertaining opening 30 minutes.

Ciaran Archer was a thorn in the side of Laois in the first half and reached the break with a personal tally of 1-5.

His goal arrived in the 25th minute when he rifled to the roof of the net under pressure while some of his successful point attempts were top quality.

The goal came just three minutes after Niall Dunne had had converted a penalty for the hosts as the O'Moore County came storming back into the game having been six points in arrears by the 18th minute.

The opening ten minutes were evenly balanced with the score reading 0-3 each.

The the Dubs hit six points without reply to lead 0-9 to 0-3 after 18 minutes.

Laois battled back to within a point following their penalty but it was Dublin who finished the half on top when adding on 1-2 with John Foley, Adam Byrne, Jordan Leonard, Darragh Warnock and Fionnan O'Sullivan Dublin's other first half scorers apart from Archer.

SCORERS – Dublin: Ciarán Archer 1-9 (0-4 frees), Adam Byrne, John Foley 0-2 each, Darragh Warnock (0-1 free), Jordan Leonard, Fionnan O’Sullivan 0-1 each. Laois: Niall Dunne 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-1 free), Mark Barry 0-5 (0-3 frees), Damien McCaul 0-3, Ronan Coffey 0-2, Dean Brophy 0-1.

DUBLIN: Liam Woodcock; Eoghan Lyons, Sam Jones, Dylan O’Connell; Ciarán Melligan, Conor Kinsella, Anthony Quinn; Niall Comerford, Fionnan O’Sullivan; Darragh Warnock, Jordan Leonard, Andrew McCaul; John Foley, Adam Byrne, Ciarán Archer. Subs: Padraic Purcell for McCaul (39).

LAOIS: Niall Gorman; Michael Dowling, Seán O’Flynn, Alex Mohan; Killian Horgan, Gary Saunders, Colin Slevin; John Rogers, Andrew Swayne; Dean Brophy, Ronan Coffey, Damien McCaul; Mark Barry, Niall Dunne, Jack Owens. Subs: PJ Daly for Swayne (20), Bernard Wheatley for Rogers (42).

REF: David Hickey (Carlow).