Good comparisons are drawn

Leinster SHC Preliminary round final: One of those firecracker games from which either manager can celebrate the light or curse the darkness depending on the mood.

Páidí Butler of Laois might begin his inquest by asking how Laois failed to beat 13 Dublin men or he could choose to celebrate the way in which they unknotted themselves in injury-time and purchased a replay.

Marty Morris could ponder the criminal carelessness of two sendings-off or he could offer hosannas for a Dublin defensive action which was almost enough.

Whatever. They'll meet again next week for the fourth time in six months.

The relationship between Dublin and Laois is a curious one. Each county pegs its hurling progress off the other. Dublin are going well when they can beat Laois with confidence and vice versa.

Saturday evening at Nowlan Park demonstrated that both sides have made substantial progress. Another turn facing each other at the same venue next Saturday will provide useful sharpening for the winners who go on to play Kilkenny.

Dublin began at a gallop and it looked briefly as if their hunger and planning would overwhelm Laois. Good quality ball came skipping into the forwards. Kevin Flynn, man of the match in most quarters, dinked a handpass to Damien Russell in the first minute and the blank look was taken off the scoreboard. Mossy McGrane (twice) and Shane Martin added further scores before Laois regrouped.

By the time the helter-skelter of the opening 10 minutes had gone a pattern was beginning to emerge. Dublin, physically smaller than a Laois team buttressed by many beefy Cuddys, were depending on good quality ball sprayed to their two-man full-forward line.

Laois were playing a smarter game with the puc-outs, winning most of Dublin's which landed in the airspace above the skyscraper Paul Cuddy and pushing their own puc-outs wide to the wings.

Everything changed in a wild two-minute spell just past the midway point in the first half. A Laois puc-out down the left wing, Joe Phelan picking out a speedy Damien Culleton on the far side, Culleton scoring a fine goal. Mossy McGrane replied with a quick free to leave the sides level and then Laois introduced David Cuddy as a blood substitute.

Cuddy and Dublin's Keith Wilson have outstanding business from the sides' league encounter this year.

Cuddy ran in and attempted to play bumper cars with Wilson who retaliated foolishly and got a straight red card on the word of an umpire. His best hope is the new-found erraticism of the GAC.

Wilson's loss was considerable and it was a credit to Dublin's tenacity that they got to the half-time break on level terms. The threat of Culleton's pace flowered briefly but was snuffed out and after that Laois resorted, strangely, to high balls dropped in on Dublin's full-back line. Plenty of emergency but little damage.

After the break substitute Michael Carton began at midfield with Conal Keaney, who was subdued for long patches having taken a heavy blow to the hand early on.

What swung matters mostly however was the deployment of Kevin Flynn around the midfield. Not the tallest man on the field, Flynn managed to get an extraordinary amount of ball into the palm of his hand.

More. Five minutes into the half Russell fed Carton whose lobbed shot was batted down by Laois goalkeeper John Lyons only for Flynn to follow in and slip it to the net. Dublin were three points up, a man down and getting ready to batten down the hatches.

The game settled into a battle between two half-back lines. Paul and Cyril Cuddy both had outstanding games in the sector for Laois. Stephen Hiney and Kevin Ryan were excellent for Dublin and Keaney's contribution grew as the game went on.

Laois had the majority of possession but seemed careless about how they spent it. They stayed level pegging with Laois until Tommy Fitzgerald squeezed a shot home from the middle of a thicket of Dublin defenders.

Young and David Cuddy added points and Laois led by three points with 10 minutes left.

After that it got crazier still. Two steps forward: substitutes Carton and Tommy Moore picked points. One step back: Keith Elliott got the line for a second bookable offence. Two steps forward: the impeccable Mossy McGrane calmly hits two tough dead balls to give Dublin the narrowest possible lead. One step back: deep into injury-time a hurley gets wrapped around James Young's neck. He slots the free.

Dublin will now have to plan without Keith Wilson and will fret over an X-ray on Keaney's hand this week. Good news is Ronan Fallon's recent return to training.

"We were disappointed to finish with 13 men," said Marty Morris afterwards, "but whoever comes out of this one I don't think the extra game will have done them any harm."

All gather again at Nowlan Park next Saturday evening. Drawn games notwithstanding, the only losers will be those who stay away.

DUBLIN: B McLoughlin; P Brennan, S Perkins, K Elliott; S Hiney, C Keaney, K Ryan; K Wilson, C Meehan; S McDonnell, D Russell (0-1), K Flynn (1-0); G Ennis, S Martin (0-2), T McGrane (0-13, 9 frees, 2 65s). Subs: M Carton (0-1) for McDonnell (27 mins), T Moore (0-1) for Ennis (55 mins), D Spain for Meehan (63 mins), K Horgan for Russell (63 mins).

LAOIS: J Lyons; L Mahon, Pakie Cuddy, P Mahon; C Cuddy, Paul Cuddy, M McEvoy; J Young (0-11, 8 frees, 1 65), D Rooney; J Phelan, R Jones (0-1), E Meagher; D Culleton (1-1), L Tynan (0-1), T Fitzgerald (1-0). Subs: L Wynne for Meagher (34 mins), D Cuddy (0-1) for Rooney (47 mins), F O'Sullivan for Fitzgerald (56 mins), P Drennan for Phelan (65 mins), B McCormack for Wynne (69 mins).

Referee: J Sexton (Limerick).