Portlaoise and Portarlington are set to square off in the Laois senior football championship for the second time in 12 months in O’Moore Park this evening.
They last met in the 2019 semi final and it really was a classic between the two best teams in the competition.
Portarlington, seeking to reach a first final in 18 years, had led by six points at the break but Portlaoise stormed back in the second half to lead by two.
Port fought back again to take the lead only for a Brian McCormack point, which brought his tally to 1-6, level the sides again. Then Dillon popped up with the winner and Damon Larkin made sure of it a couple of minutes later.
It was a dramatic second half which saw referee Michael Tarpey brandish three red cards and play 13 minutes of injury time.
Portarlington’s wing back from that game, Paddy O’Sullivan, will miss this one because he is currently in Syria with the Irish Defence Forces.
He appeared on the LaoisToday Talking Sport Podcast earlier this week where he stressed that his side can put right what went wrong the last time out.
He said: “It (the defeat) was hard to take. They came out and got a penalty early on.
“They had the experience to kick on but I know it is a cliché and everyone says it that you will take the loss and learn from it.
“This year Port have definitely learned from it. I do think we are going to kick on this year I will watch it on Saturday. I have the flag here and the 130 of us will watch it.”
A number of players who played 12 months ago, aside from O’Sullivan, are unlikely to be involved today.
For Portlaoise, Michael Nolan, Brian Mulligan and Bruno McCormack have all retired, Colin Finn is playing intermediate while there are injury concerns around Brian Glynn and Benny Carroll.
Portarlington’s star forward Colm Murphy limped off in the win against Stradbally and would have to be a major doubt for them.
However, the stakes here, as O’Sullivan rightly points out, are not as high as the loser will have the opportunity to come through the back door.
Paddy said: “Whoever loses will get a second chance. But it would be good to get one over them.
“I’m sure they will be happy if they beat us.
“But I’m also sure whoever loses will be hopeful of bouncing back and be in the later rounds of the championship.”
You can listen to this week’s Talking Sport episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean or below on Soundcloud.
The post O’Sullivan hoping his Portarlington comrades can right wrongs and down The Town appeared first on Laois Today.
source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2020/09/05/osullivan-hoping-his-portarlington-comrades-can-right-wrongs-and-down-the-town/
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