Laois 1-11 Derry 0-11: Laois finally move on. They found a way through their recurrent failure experienced on reaching this stage of the All-Ireland series in recent years and go into the quarter-final against Armagh on August 20th simply because they needed to more than Derry.
It certainly wasn't down to the performance levels. They got most things wrong, especially in the first half when they trailed by four points, while the brave Ross Munnelly had a nightmarish day with the dead ball. Strange then that he continued to excel from play.
"Realistically, it would have been a disaster for this group of players to lose so we were determined to make sure it didn't happen," said the ever consistent midfielder Noel Garvan. "Still, I think we missed 2-5 in the first half and six or seven points in the second so there is definitely more scores in us."
So Mick O'Dwyer and Laois will have at least one more day out. It was O'Dwyer's decisions from the line that tipped the scales as removing experienced forwards Chris Conway and Kevin Fitzpatrick and sending in Stephen Kelly and Brian McDonald at half-time proved highly effective. Shane Cooke, who squandered a glorious goal chance, had already been replaced by Gary Kavanagh.
Stephen Kelly contributed handsomely at crucial moments of the comeback and the return of McDonald was significant as he fielded and broke vital ball in the final quarter.
The most significant plus, though, has been the theft of Billy Sheehan from club football in Kerry, making one wonder how many other jewels are hidden in the Kingdom. He held off corner back Aidan Fennelly for the man of the match award simply because he was always there.
John O'Keeffe brought him into the Kerry camp for a time during the Páidí Ó Sé years and said he was by some distance the fittest man during those winter months. When a player looked to offload, Sheehan was there. When the game was floating in the wind, Sheehan stepped, or rather leaped, up.
That moment came after 42 minutes when Stephen Kelly sent Garvan scuttling towards the endline. He glanced up before sending a floated hand-pass over goalkeeper Barry Gillis for Sheehan to rise and palm to the net. Any thought of a square ball was immediately waved away by the strict refereeing of Paddy Russell.
Seconds later, the contest swung in Laois's favour when Stephen Kelly levelled although they tried their hardest to hand it back with four successive wides and a disallowed, albeit harshly, Kavanagh point.
Kavanagh finally gave Laois the lead but the Derry young guns Eoin Bradley, so good he made Tom Kelly look ordinary, and Mark Lynch kept it interesting with scores of their own.
Then Sheehan intervened again to kick a point with his back to goal. Munnelly restored the lead soon after before a point from an acute angle by Donie Brennan put them two clear. Munnelly scored again and Laois were in the clear.
Paddy Bradley added his fourth point soon after but he will rue kicking five wides as, even if this was offset by similar wayward shooting from Munnelly, it means a well deserved All Star is by no means secure.
Afterwards Derry manager Mickey Moran attempted to get his retaliation in first against possible criticism in the media.
"Those that sit and watch matches and don't have any idea of sports science and training of teams will say Laois were fitter but that's a load of balls. Mentally we went. But if we had pressed our authority in the first 10 minutes of the second half and got two or three scores we would have been well on top but at that stage we were mentally gone," said Moran.
He also aimed a broadside at his county board over the overlapping club championship fixture list and the decision to force the clubs to vote on his future at the end of last season despite making an All-Ireland semi-final.
"Three years ago when I was interviewed for the job, they said obviously it will be a three-year job. It has to be a minimum of a three-year job but then, lo and behold, last year it gets put out to the clubs. I have never run to you fellas about that."
So are you keen to stay on?
"Ain't I here? Aren't we in Division One next year? Absolutely, but I'm not going to crawl to anybody. Three years ago nobody wanted the job. After the first year we made a lot of changes. Now certain people in our county are realising that we have a good bunch of fellas coming through. We are no world beaters yet but we are on one hell of a graph upwards"
This much is true but they no longer matter in 2005.
For Laois, well, they next face the greatest challenge of their football lives and their short hand-passing game simply will not work against Armagh.
LAOIS: 1 F Byron; 2 A Fennelly, 3 D Rooney, 4 J Higgins; 5 C Begley, 6 T Kelly (0-1), 7 P McMahon; 8 P Clancy (0-1), 9 N Garvan (0-1); 10 R Munnelly (0-4, one free), 11 K Fitzpatrick, 12 B Sheehan (1-1); 13 D Brennan (0-1), 25 S Cooke, 15 C Conway. Subs: 23 G Kavanagh (0-1) for S Cooke (25 mins), 28 S Kelly (0-1) for K Fitzpatrick, 21 B B McDonald for C Conway (both half-time), 30 M Dunne for D Brennan (72 mins). Yellow cards: T Kelly 20 mins, N Garvan 39 mins, C Begley 40 mins, A Fennelly 72 mins.
DERRY: 1 B Gillis; 2 K McGuckin, 3 K McCloy, 17 G O'Kane; 5 Francis McEldowney, 6 SM Lockhart, 18 P Kelly (0-1); 8 Patsy Bradley, 21 Fergal Doherty; 10 Paul Murphy (0-2), 11 E Bradley (0-1), 9 J McBride (0-1); 13 M Lynch (0-1), 13 Paddy Bradley (0-4, one free), 15 E Muldoon (0-1, one free). Subs: 22 C Gilligan for P Murphy (51 mins), 25 Pauric Murphy for E Muldoon (59 mins), 24 C Devlin for E Bradley, 7 P Wilson for P Kelly (both 68 mins). Yellow cards: K McGuckin 18 mins, SM Lockhart 29 mins, K McCloy 58 mins.
Referee: P Russell (Tipperary).
