General relief to get another go

Sometimes dressing-rooms are strange dislocated places where everyone is so surprised by what has happened that cliches fail them. Dublin and Laois visited that twilight zone yesterday.

Dublin had seen their death sentence commuted. Laois had thrown away a four-point lead at the end of the game. Dublin had been exposed as a team full of flaws. Laois had tossed away their best chance at causing an upset.

"I don't know what to say," said Michael Lawlor in the Laois dressing-room. All around him teammates quietly cocked their ears to tune into how one of the team's elder statesmen was spinning it. "I was just very keen to come on. You always want another go. We want to win a Leinster title. If we can beat Dublin the next day now there is no reason we can't go on. If we want to win something then it's time for us to stand up. We've looked at the likes of Offaly and Kildare do it over the last couple of years. A lot of our lads showed that today. We're going to stand up."

Lawlor had come on as a substitute in the 20th minute, his early arrival a tribute to the managerial acuity of Tom Cribbin who was

working out where the dam had cracked while everyone else was worrying about getting wet. Last time around Lawlor had been part of the problem rather than the solution.

"That's how it goes," said Lawlor yesterday. "Tom Kelly came on the last day and played great. We started badly today but they came back. They got a soft goal and a soft penalty. We've another crack at the Dubs. No harm to be back in Croke Park again, good for the confidence, good. We'll sit down and study it, look at a few videos."

Down in the Dublin dressingroom words weren't coming any easier. Manager Tom Carr was asked to explain the act of conjuring that turned such a good start into such a helter skelter finish.

"If I could explain that I'd be winning All-Irelands every year. It's mind boggling. Six points up and cruising, then nothing, for what? Twenty five minutes. Fellas had the game won in their heads, I think."

"Michael Lawlor did a lot of damage to us," Carr conceded. "I won't say he caught us off guard but he was getting around the pitch. I certainly thought we'd be planning summer holidays with a few minutes to go. We kicked 20 wides and we weren't going to suddenly put three or four points over. I knew we needed a goal.

"We had a huge number of wides. There was a lot of silly shooting though. Statistically they are wides but not really opportunities. We didn't create 20 scoring opportunities, we did a lot of panic shooting. Fellas doing what they normally don't do, snatching at things. When we got the goal we cooled down, fisting the ball over the bar was the cool-headed thing to do."

Any explanation in the buildup. A complacency virus somewhere in the system? Anything?

"Well I fancied Westmeath but from the drubbing Laois gave them we knew they were there or thereabouts. We didn't underestimate them. We went at them quickly and strong from the start. What we did do was underestimate their ability to come back at us."

If Dublin had effected a general resurrection Jason Sherlock had pulled off a personal comeback which might be of equal long-term significance. He didn't score but Dublin looked livelier for his presence and he was involved twice in the build-up to the Dublin equalising point. Not that the whole business lent itself to words.

"We were lucky. We got out of jail. All the cliches. The point is when you are in a dressing-room like this you can say what you want in here but when it comes to the replay you have to do it.

"Last year we were in the same predicament against Kildare. We said all the things but when we went out the next day we didn't improve upon it."

Back in the Laois dressing-room it was Tom Cribbin's job to set the tone. Pleased or disappointed. Only one answer.

"Pleased. We're still in the Leinster championship. If we get a draw next day we could be into August. We let four points go at the end but that's football."

Any complaints about the penalty? "I didn't have a great view but the players weren't whingeing when they came in so there you are. A penalty is a penalty. These things happen."