Galway Ladies remain top of the National Football League division one after five rounds, maintaining their course for a place in the semi-finals.
Last weekend their unbeaten run continued with a one-point victory over Laois in Ballinasloe (2-12 to 2-11 ) despite a shakey opening half.
Galway had started brightly with Una Carroll scoring three points - two from frees - and Edel Concannon adding to the tally before Laois found their feet, scoring 1-3 in a three-minute assault on the Galway goal. Martina Dunne and the Kirwan sisters caused havoc for Galway, while Dunne finished a great move to find Noreen Kirwan who netted for a five-point gap.
Two more Carroll frees and a Niamh Duggan point revived hope after the restart, but Laois then struck their second goal through Mary Kirwan.
Galway, however, continued to fight back and were rewarded when a blistering counter-attack saw Edel Concannon fire into the net from a Sinead Burke pass.
The remaining 15 minutes were frantic. Another Carroll free was followed by two Laois white flags from Dunne and Tracey Lawlor.
With five minutes remaining, Galway were handed a glorious chance to level it when a penalty was awarded after Burke was fouled. Duggan kept her cool, and slotted low to the left hand side. This was followed quickly by a fine free from substitute Gillian O’Connor to snatch the lead for Gay O’Briens side – and in stoppage time Laois midfield maestro Olwyn Farrell looked to have hit the score that would see both sides share the spoils.
Galway launched one more assault in the dying seconds – resulting in a free from the 20, which was converted by Duggan to seal the crucial win.
GALWAY: J Connolly; S Noone, A Gilmore (N Connolly 58mins ), C Cormican; A Daly, E Flaherty, G Conneally (0-1 ); D Lawless, R McPhilbin (S Conneally 55mins ); D Gorman, E Concannon (1-1 ), S Burke, U Carroll (0-7 ) (M Coyne 55mins ), N Duggan (1-2 ), L Joyce (G O’Connor 0-1 53mins ).
LAOIS: C Dollard; G Dunne, L Muckian (M O’Grady 55mins ), A Quigley; A Taylor, P Fogarty, A Casey; O Farrell (0-2 ), T Lawlor (0-1 ); Martha Kirwan, N Kirwan (1-3 ), A Moore; M Dunne (0-3 ) (A Kehoe 55mins ), Mary Kirwan (1-2 ), E McEvoy.
