Champions Portlaoise set up a mouth-watering AIB Leinster club SFC quarter-final against Kilmacud Crokes after withstanding a second half fightback from Moorefield in a cracking first round tie at O'Moore Park.

Portlaoise (Laois) 2-11
Moorefield (Kildare) 0-14

Goals in either half from Barry Fitzgerald and Craig Rogers proved decisive as 'The Town' hung on against a Moorefield side who never gave up, despite having county midfielder Daryl Flynn sent off for a high tackle on Hugh Coghlan in the 57th minute.

The Kildare champions opened the scoring through Ciaran Kelly inside the first minute, but the home side responded with five unanswered points, including two each from Craig Rogers and Paul Cahillane, to lead by 0-5 to 0-1 by the 10th minute.

Moorefield cut the deficit to the minimum before Fitzgerald's 16th minute major helped Portlaoise to a 1-8 to 0-6 interval lead.

The Laois kingpins tightened their grip on proceedings when Rogers fired home a second goal early in the second half to make it 2-8 to 0-7, but the Moores hit back with five unanswered points from Ciaran Kelly, Ronan Sweeney and Patrick Murray between the 38th and 44th minutes.

However, they couldn't get back on level terms as scores from Fitzgerald, Brian 'Bruno' McCormack and Rogers kept them at bay.

Portlaoise - M Nolan; E Bland, C Healy, B Mulligan; K Lillis, H Coghlan, C Boyle; A Kelly, T Fitzgerald; B Glynn, B McCormack (0-2), C Rogers (1-3); P Cahillane (0-4), Z Touhy (0-1), B Fitzgerald (1-1). Subs - K Fitzpatrick for Glynn; C Byrne for T Fitzgerald.

Moorefield - T Corley; L Callaghan, K O'Neill, I Lonergan; Kenny Duane, G Naughton, K Murnaghan (0-1); D Flynn, D Whyte (0-1); P Murray (0-3), R Sweeney (0-3), C Kelly (0-4); F Hannify, J Phillips, Keith Duane (0-1). Subs - P Wolfe (0-1) for Hanniffy; L Keane for Kenny Duane; P O'Flynn for Lonergan; N Hurley-Lynch for Keith Duane; C Corrigan for Phillips.

Ref - D Fahy (Longford). Tweet

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