What a night for Louth as they cantered to a magnificent 2-16 to 0-10 victory over Laois at O'Moore Park.

Two divisions separated these teams last year but tonight it was the 2016 Division Four winners who were a class apart as goals from Man of the Match Paraic Smith and the equally-impressive Andy McDonnell in either half left the hosts with red faces.

Colin Kelly's men produced a scintillating first-half effort to roar into an eight-point lead but the host kept themselves in touch by notching the last three points before the break, 1-8 to 0-6.

Ryan Burns and Smith pointed for the Wee County either side of a Donie Kingston free and Dreadnots ace Smith grabbed his second point before finding the net to give the visitors a healthy 1-3 to 0-1 advantage after 16 minutes.

Kingston and Burns (free) traded scores before Bevan Duffy and Smith increased the gap to seven points with ten minutes left before the break, 1-6 to 0-2. Danny Luttrell and Kingston (free) pointed for Laois but McDonnell and Ruairi Moore had been on target for the Reds in between.

Points from Stephen Attride and Kingston before the break meant there was still plenty to play for when the action resumed.

Duffy's point made it double scores upon the restart and Anthony Williams cancelled out a Kingston free. Westerns clubman Tommy Durnin left it double scores again - 1-11 to 0-7. McDonnell settled the issue when his goal left ten points between the teams with 20 minutes left.

The hosts' night went from bad to worse when Colm Begley was sent off and Burns, Williams and Smith all registered for the winners in response to a Laois brace. It was treble scores - 2-15 to 0-7 - after Durnin's next point and substitute Ross Nally added the last score for a well-drilled Wee County combination.

Louth - C Lynch; P Rath, P Reilly, K Carr; D Maguire, L Dullaghan, A Williams (0-2); T Durnin (0-2), A McDonnell (1-1); J Stewart, P Smith (1-4), B Duffy (0-2); R Moore (0-1), J McEneaney, R Burns (0-3, 2f). Subs: C McKeever for B Duffy, R Holcroft for R Moore, D Crilly for J McEneaney, R Nally (0-1f) for R Burns, S Mulroy for P Smith, J Bingham for J Stewart.

Laois - G Brody; A Farrell, D Booth, J Kelly; S Attride (0-1), E Buggie, C Begley; K Meaney, D Strong; D Luttrell (0-1), A Doran, N Donoher; E Lowry, D Kingston (0-6, 4f), D Conway. Subs: G Walsh (0-1) for D Luttrell, P McMahon for J Kelly, R Munnelly for E Lowry, D O'Reilly for K Meaney, P Kingston for A Doran, K Lillis (0-1) for D Conway.

Referee - J Hickey.

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