Seamus 'Cheddar' Plunkett says his Laois side will relish the challenge of facing Galway.

The O'Moore County defeated neighbours Carlow at O'Moore Park yesterday to qualify for their first Leinster SHC semi-final since 2005 and can now look forward to hosting the reigning provincial champions in Portlaoise in two weeks' time.

"You've got to put this into context of where we are and who we're going to play next," the Laois manager said.

"Galway beat the best team that a lot of us have ever seen (Kilkenny, in last year's Leinster final) and drew with them and had a great chance to beat them the third time (they met in the All-Ireland final replay).

"Having said that, we will meet this challenge. We will not fear anybody here. We will attack Galway and we will be going for a win. I just thought we found it difficult [today]. I was happy with the win but maybe not the performance. We knew that beforehand, that Carlow would play to a system that's difficult to break down.

"They put a lot of men in to challenge the ball. We thought in the first half we just weren't working hard enough, and in the second half we set our stall out a bit better and I think we drove on a bit better at that stage." Tweet

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