Armagh beat Laois 3-12 to 2-8 this afternoon at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise in their Ladies Senior Football All-Ireland opener.

The Orchard County got off to a flyer when Kelly Mallon scored their first point of the afternoon in the first minute.

Sarah Ann Fitzgerald got Laois back on equal terms a minute later before four Armagh points in a row blew the home side out of the water in a nine-minute salvo.

Niamh Reel’s goal in the 17th minute put visitors 1-5 to 0-1 up and punished the O’Moore County’s inability to take their chances. A number of the home side’s attempted points dropped short while the Armagh defence held strong, double-teaming Laois full forward Mo Nerney.

Laois struggled to get to grips with the pace of the Armagh transitions and a second goal came for the away side through Aoife McCoy in the 26th minute.

Blaithin Mackin scored her second point of the game to put the Orchard County 2-7 up before three scores on the bounce for Laois made it 2-7 to 0-5 at the break.

After the interval the home side continued that scoring run through Katie Donoghue, cutting the deficit to seven points.

Kelly Mallon replied for Armagh before a Mo Nerney goal in the 40th minute brought some hope to the O’Moore girls with the game at 2-10 to 2-6.

Points by Caitriona O’Hagan, Eve Lavery, and McCoy for Armagh appeared to have settled any nerves the visitors had but a brilliant goal scored by Donoghue in the 51st minute put the cat amongst the pigeons and made for an interesting last period of the game.

McCoy scored her second goal of the match at the end to ensure the Ulster side ran out worthy winners.
Laois can be happy with their performance after stepping up from intermediate level, while Armagh will be looking to continue their good form against Mayo in their next outing.