John Sugrue says Laois have got a monkey off their backs by winning back-to-back championship games for the first time in nine years.

After a slow start, the O'Moore County routed a threadbare Westmeath side in Tullamore last night to back up their dramatic first round comeback win over Wexford and qualify for a Leinster SFC semi-final against either Kildare or Carlow.

"Look, we have had monkeys hanging over us all year, one of those monkeys was that Laois hadn't won back-to-back championship matches for quite a while," the Laois manager said in an interview with RTE.

"It was mentioned lately and it's a damning statistic for Laois. It was important for us to get the win. We are still only forming, we are only finding our feet and I don't know where we can go to.

"Maybe there is a small bit of tentaiveness in the group. Once we found our feet we played reasonably well."

It was an evening to remember for Paul Kingston who scored a hat-trick from centre forward, but Surgue was pleased with the overall performance.

"Paul had a great attacking impetus today. I'm delighted for Paul, he has worked hard to get back from injury," the Kerry man added.

"The next day somebody else might have to step up but looking at the game as a whole I was pleased that at our shape and the threat we did possess when we found our groove." 

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