True tale of toil and triumph

Westmeath 0-12 Laois 0-10

It's a cold winter's night, home-fire burning, Werther's Originals on a tray. You know the cliché.

The grandfather is about to recount his favourite tale. It's Westmeath's first Leinster title and a rogue from Kerry who became their saviour; it's about watching David O'Shaughnessy lift the Delaney Cup and standing over a maroon sea declaring it "a historic day for Westmeath people, young and old, all over the world."

So, the old man sighs with a smile and begins: They said we missed our chance. The legendary Micko was in charge of Laois, and nobody could see them losing a replay. And it looked that way. In the first 20 minutes, we couldn't kick a ball. We had plenty of possession, but were kicking wide after wide. It took us 23 minutes to score. But there was hope. Laois had only scored three points in that time.

"Sometimes, they go wide and sometimes, they go over," David O'Shaughnessy reasoned. "We never panicked at the start. We were still playing decent football and Laois were only a few points up."

Alan Mangan was the first Westmeath player to score. He was part of a lethal full-forward line, himself, Dessie Dolan and Denis Glennon. In 12 minutes, they had scored six points between them. And Micheal Ennis, he popped up from nowhere to score another and see us seven points to five ahead at half-time. We should never have doubted them.

Páidí Ó Sé: "We went out at half-time and if we had to stay out on that pitch till six o'clock on Sunday morning, we were not coming back in until we won the thing."

"Páidí is special and unique," O'Shaughnessy smiles. "I don't know if we can clone him, but we should try. We are just thankful he is working with us." The old man continues recounting the performances of players like John Keane and Donal O'Donaghue. Laois had some of the best forwards in the country, Beano McDonald, Munnelly. And yet, they weren't given a yard of space. Beano didn't score for 52 minutes. Four of their points came from non-forwards, that will tell you something about our defence that evening. And he got one over on his teacher.

Páidí: "Mick Dwyer has done it all. He doesn't need to prove anything. He is the greatest manager in the game, he has forgotten more about football than I will ever know."

That second half, my boy, went on forever. The first 10 minutes were grand. We scored four points and Laois looked shattered. When Mangan popped over another point in the 50th minute, we were cruising. But we had to make it hard on ourselves, didn't we? Páidí: "We came through tight games against Offaly and Dublin and they stood to us. We were lucky in parts during the game but we will take whatever luck the Gods are giving us." Twenty-two minutes we went without a score. We all aged 22 years in that period. Our defence was wonderful, Rory O'Connell and David O'Shaughnessy mopped up everything in midfield. But Laois were slowly coming back. They were more experienced, chipping away at the lead. And then, the board went up for injury time. Six more minutes of this torture. That is where most of these grey hairs came from.

Paul Conway: "This is the happiest day of my life. It doesn't matter that I didn't finish the game. I had to come off, my legs had ceased up at that point. But those two minutes on the side-line felt like an eternity."

You learn not to trust the game of football. There was too many near misses, too many times when Westmeath should have won. Ollie Murphy's late strike, Dessie's missed free. So, it all made sense when Kevin Fitzpatrick found himself in an acre of space in front of our goal. It was the way things were. Except he missed.

Ó Sé: "This is right up there with all the great days I had with Kerry. This is a special night for Westmeath, this team deserve it. We knew at half-time we were going to win this. They are tough men in Westmeath."

See son, we had waited for years for this. Through all the false dawns and the under-age success, through defeat and defeat to Meath. Great people toiled for Westmeath for decades for that moment.

WESTMEATH: G. Connaughton, J. Davitt, D. O'Donoghue, J. Keane, M. Ennis 0-1, D. Healy, D. Heavin, R. O'Connell, D. O'Shaughnessy, B. Morley 0-1, P. Conway, F. Wilson 0-1, A. Mangan 0-4, D Glennon 0-2, D. Dolan 0-3. Sub J Fallon for Wilson, G Dolan for Conway, S Colleary for Glennon.

LAOIS: F Byron; A Fennelly, J Higgins, P McDonald; D Rooney, T Kelly 0-1, K Fitzpatrick 0-2; P Clancy 0-1, N Garvan; R Munnelly 0-3, M Lawlor, G Kavanagh; B McDonald 0-1, D Brennan 0-1, C Parkinson 0-1. Sub I Fitzgerald for Lawlor, D Miller for Kavanagh, M Delaney for Brennan, P Conway for Higgins, Referee: M Monahan (Kildare).