Leinster SFC Final Westmeath 0-12 Laois 0-10 One hundred years of solitude had been bad enough but this would have been a worse sentence. So having gone scoreless for the opening 23 minutes of Saturday's Leinster football final replay, Westmeath's footballers looked deep inside their hearts. Chances are they looked, too, at Páidí Ó Sé.
Then they started writing the county's greatest sporting chapter - their first Leinster senior football title. The GAA is fast running out of such historical moments. Now just two counties live on without a provincial football title - Wicklow and Fermanagh - and even if Westmeath go on to win a bigger prize they can't beat that first moment.
By the time David O'Shaughnessy had collected the Leinster trophy and started into the sort of acceptance speech that will become folklore, the thousands of supporters that flooded the pitch beneath him had long forgotten those opening 23 minutes, when Westmeath couldn't get the ball between the posts for love or money and Laois looked like defending their title without even breaking sweat. It looked that bad.
Just as the watch ticked past 23 minutes Rory O'Connell wrestled possession at midfield and sent a beautiful ball to Dessie Dolan. He spotted Alan Mangan moving into space and once the chain was completed Westmeath had their first score.
It wasn't so much a turning point as a defining point. O'Connell and Dolan simply soared to glorious heights from there on. And Mangan had the game of his life, scoring four points in totals
It was the first point that ultimately won the title for Westmeath. It started an operation freeflow that saw them score six more of the finest by half-time, at which stage they led 0-7 to 0-5.
By then Laois had given it their best, and things went downhill. They lost their title because Westmeath first rode out their storm, and then inflicted irreparable damage.
It hurt most in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Westmeath came out and scored another four points without reply, and Laois seemingly were falling apart at the seams.
They did recover enough to hold Westmeath scoreless for over 20 minutes of a heart-racing dénouement but still never looked like winners. Kevin Fitzpatrick alone had reason to believe he could save their day just as the six minutes of added time were announced. What he did with his great goal chance doesn't deserve to be exaggerated. But it was wide.
Everyone in the 38,300 crowd will remember that moment and of course Fitzpatrick will too but it would have been an injustice had it gone in. By then Westmeath had long looked the worthiest of champions. From the flawless defending and the powerful midfield to the surging attack they had ground Laois to a halt.
Ó Sé said afterwards he wasn't in the business of singling out players for praise. Well John Keane, Donal O'Donoghue and Damien Healy deserve extra praise. As does O'Connell. And if Dolan and Mangan and Brian Morley didn't get a few extra slaps on the back then they were hard done by.
What Ó Sé did admit was he had a simple message for his team at half-time: "We were coming out, and if we'd to stay out until six in the morning we weren't coming in without winning the bloody thing."
There were other spurs for them after the restart. The forwards had got their scoring radars back in order and if their backs could keep things in check they had a great chance of winning. "We needed to be tighter today than we were last Sunday, even though our backs were exceptionally tight last Sunday. But I won't say how tight we were today," said Ó Sé. "And I suppose I'm a defenders-oriented kind of a man myself."
When Mangan collected his fourth point Westmeath were still up by six, 0-12 to 0-6. For Laois to rise to that challenge they needed all hands on deck. Instead they found some key officers missing.
The loss of captain Chris Conway through appendicitis on Friday night turned out to be an omen. Michael Lawlor lasted just 30 minutes before his thigh injury forced his early retirement.
Ross Munnelly didn't seem quite so explosive and his hurt ankle was a factor there, while the loss late on of full back Joe Higgins with a serious knee injury finished them off.
"I'm not making any excuses," said Mick O'Dwyer afterwards, "but you can't replace players of that character. You have to go down the line."
It was a fair point but didn't cover all their woes. Noel Garvan drifted in and out of midfield and Colm Parkinson and Beano McDonald struggled badly with their markers.
Where this takes Westmeath now no one can even guess.
"The only one to mention the All-Ireland title was Mick O'Dwyer when he came in with his old rogue comments," warned Ó Sé. "But look we set out to win the Leinster championship. We said if we won that we'd steady ourselves again, and apply ourselves to the other competition, which is the All-Ireland series."
WESTMEATH: 1. G Connaughton; 3. D O'Donoghue, 4. J Keane, 6. D Healy; 7. D Heavin, 2. J Davitt, 5. M Ennis (0-1); 8. R O'Connell, 9. D O'Shaughnessy; 10. B Morley (0-1), 11. P Conway, 12. F Wilson (0-1, free); 13. A Mangan (0-4), 14. D Glennon (0-2), 15. D Dolan (0-3, one free) Subs: 19. J Fallon for Wilson (57 mins), 25. G Dolan for Conway (74 mins), 23. S Colleary for Glennon (75 mins).
LAOIS: 1. F Byron; 2. A Fennelly, 3. J Higgins, 4. P McDonald; 5. D Rooney, 6. T Kelly (0-1), 7. K Fitzpatrick (0-2); 8. P Clancy (0-1), 9. N Garvan; 10. R Munnelly (0-3, frees), 11. M Lawlor, 14. G Kavanagh; 13. B McDonald (0-1), 30. D Brennan (0-1), 15. C Parkinson (0-1). Subs: 17. I Fitzgerald for Lawlor (31 mins, inj), 20. D Miller for Kavanagh (42 mins), 28. M Delaney for Brennan (55 mins), 26. P Conway for Higgins (64 mins, inj)
Referee: M Monahan (Kildare)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)