The hosts staged a fabulous fightback but Laois held on to prevail by 0-11 to 2-3 at Wexford Park.

This is Laois' second win of the round-robin phase of the U17 competition as they defeated Longford by 1-12 to 0-11 in Round One, while the Model County were well beaten by Kildare last time out.

Having played with the wind in the first half, the visitors led by 0-7 to 0-2 at the break. The Slaneysiders were unlucky when Mark Keogh rattled the crossbar early on but Stradbally's Eamonn Delaney and captain Sean O'Neill posted the first two scores for Laois before Jamie Sheen replied.

Oisin Byrne, Rioghan Murphy and wing back Delaney- with another free from distance - nudged the winners four ahead and it was their turn to feel hard done by as full forward Damon Larkin hit the post going for goal. A Byrne free and a Ben Conroy effort completed the O'Moore County's first-half scoring, Emmett Cullen delivering Wexford's second point.

Murphy and Byrne (two) had the away team seemingly cruising after 40 minutes, eight clear. Wexford rallied with a Jack O'Leary goal and a Lee Jordan point, however, to halve their arrears.

Jack Finucane registered the second Model major in injury time after Delaney snatched his third point, but Laois held on for a nervy two-point win despite a last-gasp penalty miss from substitute Josh O'Brien.

Laois - T Wright; S Greene, M Bennett, C Byrne; N Carey, C Bennett, E Delaney (0-3f); J Lacey, B Conroy (0-1); D Galvin, S O'Neill (0-1), E McWey; O Byrne (0-4, 2f), R Murphy (0-2), D Larkin. Subs: S Farrelly for D Galvin, J O'Brien for C Byrne, C Goode for J Lacey, C Doyle for N Carey, S M Corcoran for R Murphy.

Wexford - A Larkin; J O'Leary (1-0), R Murphy, O Gahan; H Kehoe, J Sheehan (0-1), C Kavanagh; E Cullen (0-1), M Kehoe; A Mullins, C Regan, L Jordan (0-1); J Doran, E Nolan, L Nolan. Subs: C Kehoe for J Doran, N Connolly for O Gahan, J Finucane (1-0) for H Kehoe, P Casey for L Nolan.

Referee - J Hickey.

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