Portarlington And Portlaoise To Battle In County Decider For First Time Since 1991

Tuesday, 2 November 2021 10:10

It's a mouth watering contest for the neutral.

As the dust settles on the semi-finals in Laois here's a look at some of the stats behind the clash between Portlaoise and Portarlington.

With the utmost respect to Ballyroan-Abbey and Emo, it's fair to say this is probably the contest most neutrals wanted to see for the senior football title in Laois.

The two sides have had opposite paths to the final with Portarlington looking unnervingly solid as they negotiated each round thus far.

Portlaoise by contrast have been there to be shot at and plenty of teams have given them a right rattle. O'Dempseys took them to extra-time and they've trailed in the second half during each of their games to date.

The semi-final with Ballyroan was probably the first time this season where their forwards found their range and put up a score that supporters have come to expect from them.

Here's a recap of their championship form to date.

Portarlington:

R1: 1-12 - 0-12 v Ballyfin
R2: 2-14 - 0-9 v Courtwood
QF: 0-16 - 0-8 v Stradbally
SF: 0-10 - 0-4 v Emo

Portlaoise:

R1: 1-7 - 1-9 Loss v Courtwood
R2: 2-10 - 2-8 v Ballyfin
R3: 1-12 - 2-7 v St. Josephs
QF: 1-15 - 1-12 v O'Dempseys
SF: 1-17 - 0-6 v Ballyroan-Abbey

When it comes to previous meetings in county finals, this is a first meeting between the two at this stage in 30-years and just the third overall in the 133 year history of the Laois Senior Football Championship.

Those titles have been split one-apiece.

Portarlington took the inaugural meeting in 1959 by two points, 2-2 to 1-3. Portlaoise exacted revenge after a long wait in 1991. A similarly tight contest finishing 0-7 to 0-5.

The current champions overall record in finals is 13/24 which isn't exactly off the charts. By contrast, Laois' winningest club Portlaoise have a record of 35/39 since their first title tilt as one club in 1958.

They'd previously captured 4 titles as Maryborough.

Neutrals won't be expecting as low scoring a contest when the sides meet once again in two weeks time in O'Moore Park but a hard hitting and skillful game is definitely assured.