O’Dwyer: we threw in towel completely

IT’S been said many a time that Laois just don’t know how to win. Maybe so, but they certainly know how to lose in style.

Yesterday’s humiliating 14-point defeat was the county’s heaviest championship loss to Dublin in 27 matches, a run that spans three centuries all the way back to a 7-11 to 0-3 reversal in 1899.

Laois have simply deluded themselves; nobody will believe they are a ‘coming force’ after this no matter how often it is shouted from the rooftops.

“In the second-half it was amazing,” Mick O’Dwyer conceded. “We just threw in the towel completely, which I was amazed with. No matter how much you’re down you keep on fighting.”

The turning point wasn’t Tomas Quinn’s goal after 23 minutes though, it was quite clearly the injury to Padraig Clancy whose impressive start had allowed Laois to dominate the midfield exchanges.

Once the Timahoe midfielder left the field with a suspected broken collar bone, Laois were in disarray. It was shocking to see their decline when one man had to leave the field.

“He’s gone to the Mater (Hospital) as far as I know,” said O’Dwyer. “We won’t know for a couple of days how he is but Clancy was a massive loss. We were going great when he was there and it would have been better had he got that goal.

The immediate future doesn’t look any rosier. This the earliest they have faced the qualifiers since Colm Browne’s last year in charge in 2002 and questions must be asked about how much stomach they have for the long road back to the Croke Park.

Too many of their key players under performed yesterday. Last year Aidan Fennelly was their best defender, Noel Garvan their best midfielder, while Billy Sheehan and Ross Munnelly were their best forwards. All bar Garvan were called ashore yesterday and the St Joseph’s midfielder would have too were Laois not already down to the bare bones in the engine room.

Mick O’Dwyer’s swansong in the O’Moore County is not going to plan: “We’re playing in the qualifiers in two weeks’ time and we’ll give it a shot,” said the Kerryman. “It will be hard to come back from that. Then again, we have some footballers and they just didn’t perform today.”

O’Dwyer concluded: “It’s a championship game. It’s a funny old game. Dublin could have been beaten by Longford a couple of weeks ago. They came up today and gave an exhibition of football. They are real contenders for the championship now this year.”