Laois came away from the Athletic Grounds tonight with a brilliant 1-13 to 0-15 victory over Armagh.

Man of the Match Paul Cahillane (1-2) netted the decisive score from the spot halfway through the first half to help propel the winners into a 1-7 to 0-6 half-time advantage and they went on to lead by seven points twelve minutes after the restart.

But, with the wind at their backs, the hosts reeled off seven of the next eight scores (Shea Heffron, Miceal McKenna (2), Stefan Campbell (2), Niall Grimley and Ethan Rafferty all on target) to trail by just one, 0-13 to 1-11, with an hour on the clock.

Evan O'Carroll gave the midlanders some breathing space when he converted a '45' on 64 minutes but the visitors were reduced to 14 men when Jamie Farrell received his second yellow a minute later.

Rafferty became the third Armagh man to hit the woodwork when his shot came back off a post and Donie Kingston converted a free for his fifth point on the stroke of full time to leave a goal between the sides. Two injury-time points from Campbell (0-6) were not enough to save Kieran McGeeney's charges, who were left ruing Colm Watters and Gavin McParland shots off the crossbar either side of half time.

Laois - G Brody; R Kehoe, M Timmons, D Seale; D Strong, P Cotter, G Dillon; K Lillis, K Meaney; J Farrell, D Kingston (0-5, 3f), N Donoher (0-1); P Cahillane (1-2, 1-0pen, 0-1f), E O'Carroll (0-3), G Walsh (0-1f). Subs: M Campion (0-1) for K Meaney, D O'Connor for D Strong, D O'Reilly for G Walsh, R O'Connor for M Campion.

Armagh - N McNeice; S Heffron (0-1), C Vernon, R McCaughey; S Forker, A Forker (0-1), M Shields; A Findon, N McConville; S Campbell (0-6, 4f), M McKenna (0-3), S Sheridan; C Watters, C O'Hanlon, G McParland (0-2, 1f). Subs: E Rafferty (0-1) for N McConville, E McVerry for G McParland, N Grimley (0-1) for S Sheridan, J McElroy for S Forker, O MacIomhair for C Watters, S Connell for R McCaughey.

Referee - B Cassidy.

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