Defiant Laois earn reprieve

Laois 1-11 Dublin 1-11

Yesterday's All-Ireland MFC final was a thrilling affair as the young footballers of Dublin and Laois played themselves to a standstill.

With regular time having passed, it looked like a repeat of the Leinster final was on the cards, with Dublin about to lift their second title of the season. But enter substitute David Murphy, with steady nerve and unerring accuracy to rescue Laois with a point. Neither side deserved to lose a game that see-sawed back and forth for the whole hour-plus. Young Dublin manager Ciaran O'Hare however knew, this was one that got away.

"No doubt about it, these are the two best minor teams in the country, and they proved that again today. We were behind at half-time, didn't play well at all in the first half, but we got back into it early on in the second half. To go two points up on two occasions then, it was disappointing not to win it in the end."

There was actually only a point in it at the break, but it should have been more. O'Hare was half-right, Dublin did not play well for most of that opening phase while Laois were top in most areas. Craig Rogers and Brendan Quigley formed an almost perfectly dove-tailing midfield partnership, while a lively and constantly-interchanging forward line, Donal Brennan most prominent, asked all sorts of awkward questions of a hard-pressed Dublin defence.

That harmonising midfield duet was no accident, Laois manager Sean Dempsey revealed afterwards. "Quigley and Rogers are two very different types of players, one gets up and wins the ball in the air, the other is good on the ground. We felt that no matter what way it broke we had a man there to take care of things."

So they did and by the 22nd minute Laois had taken a 1-5 to 0-4 lead, their goal coming after a multi-player move involving midfielder Craig Rogers and full-forward Donal Brennan, before Colm Kelly of St. Joseph's supplied the final scoring pass for his namesake from Stradbally.

The second Colm Kelly still had work to do, but rounded Dublin keeper Kieran Walsh and slotted home. Dublin were only hanging on at this stage, Laois definitely playing the better football, but the five minutes before the break saw a turnaround in their fortunes.

Bleach-blonde wing-forward Mark Vaughan was the catalyst. Latching onto a long free from Kevin Leahy his first goal-shot well blocked, but he made no mistake on the half-volley from the break. That goal brought Dublin back into it, and an exchange of points between Barry Kennedy and the Stradbally Kelly saw just the minimum between them at the break, 1-6 to 1-5.

Dublin were faster out of the blocks in the second half and with substitute full-forward Francis Fitzgerald posing all sorts of problems, slotted three fast points. Laois responded with a brilliant outside-of-the-boot strike from wing-forward Peter McNulty which soon got their challenge back on track. But back came Dublin with Kennedy restoring their two-point advantage.

Laois were not to be outdone and nabbed three efforts via Michael Tierney, Brennan and winger Chris Bergin. It all meant that the Midlanders were a point ahead, with time ticking away, (1-10 to 1-9). But then Kennedy and Leahy combined to put Dublin back in the ascendancy before Murphy produced his heroics, leaving manager Dempsey a happy man.

"When Dublin were a point up coming to the final whistle, we'd have taken the draw, but we had a couple of bad wides, rushing our kicks a little bit. You can't take from either team. We were ahead at half-time, Dublin came back, took the lead, we came back again, got our noses in front, then it was Dublin again.

Great game of football, great youngfellas playing football the way it was meant to be played, fast, open, tough, no favours asked or given. Brilliant."

The replay will be next weekend, but Dublin could have a problem. In those final minutes, the outstanding Barry Kennedy went over on his ankle while trying to win a breaking ball in the Laois danger-area, and was stretchered off. "We won't know the damage for another few hours, but hopefully he'll be okay", said O'Hare.

Scorers Laois: C. Kelly (Stradbally) 1-1; D. Brennan 0-3; M. Tierney 0-2 (0-1 free); P. McNulty 0-2; C. Bergin 0-2; D. Murphy 0-1.

Dublin: B. Kennedy 0-4; M. Vaughan 1-0; K. Leahy 0-3 (0-1 free); A. Relihan 0-2; F. Fitzgerald, J. Coughlan, 0-1 each.

LAOIS: C. Gorman; C. Healy, C. Ryan, R. Stapleton; P. O'Leary, C. Begley, N. Danagher; B. Quigley, C. Rogers (c); C. Bergin, C. Kelly (St. Joseph's), P. McNulty; M. Tierney, D. Brennan, C. Kelly (Stradbally). Subs: B. Fitzgerald (Kelly Stradbally 56); D. Murphy (McNulty 59).

DUBLIN K. Walsh; A. Downes, K. Cleere (c), W. Lowery; D. Reilly, G. Brennan, I. Ward; B. Phelan, J. Coughlan; M. Vaughan, B. Kennedy, G. O'Meara; A. Relihan, K. Leahy, J. O'Hara. Subs: F. Fitzgerald (Brennan 29); J. O'Brien (Kennedy inj. 59); C. Moore (O'Hara 60).

Referee: J. Geaney (Cork).

Result: All-Ireland Minor C Final: Donegal 0-10 Sligo 0-9.