Defeat doesn't sit easily with Laois

Laois quotes: When Mick O'Dwyer uses a word like "crucifixion" to describe the feeling of losing a football match you get the sense he means it. The man who has led more teams to more success than any other manager in history still doesn't see losing as an option. It's still all or nothing with O'Dwyer.

"Yeah, to lose by one point is like a crucifixion," he says. "It must have been great for the spectators, but not for us. So it was a very disappointing game in the end for us. Certainly it was a game we could and should have drawn. We got the two chances, but we didn't take them. And that's the way it goes."

Coming up, he says, his Laois team were ready to win. Now O'Dwyer will have to try to regenerate that feeling all over again: "We were well primed for it this morning, that's for sure.

"We have three weeks now before we're out again - that will be good. We had three games in 14 days last year. So we'll see. But I think we'll be ready for the next one alright."

Ross Munnelly is standing in the hallway of the dressingroom trying to put words on the feeling of defeat. He describes it with slightly less heartbreak.

"I don't know," he says, "but if luck had have been with us in the last couple of minutes we could very easily be talking here as Leinster champions.

"We just couldn't get going in the first half. We were being beaten to the first ball, and the breaks were all going to the Dublin lads. But that's down to Dublin. It was the same as what we did to Kildare the last day.

"They were 100 per cent up for it, and were getting the rub of the green in the process. So they deserved the lead."

At half-time the Laois players found themselves listening a little more carefully to O'Dwyer's words. Still, they knew only they could turn it around. "Micko's talk was simple enough," say Munnelly. "If we go out and play for 35 minutes we'd be right back in the game, and I think we proved we could.

"When we took the lead I was feeling pretty happy that things were going our way, and we were getting on top. A few small things changed it again, and you have to give credit to Mossy Quinn for a fantastic score.

"I missed my chance at the end, and it may as well be an inch as 10 feet. It doesn't matter. It didn't make it on the day, and I'll have to live with that. I'll get back to the practice field on Tuesday night to put it right."

Midfielder Noel Garvan also showed that defeat just doesn't sit easily with this Laois team: "You have to play for 70 minutes to win a Leinster final, simple as that. But I thought there were some borderline decisions near the end, definitely.

"But it still comes down to playing for 70 minutes. There's no point in going into that. If you want to win All-Irelands you can't be complaining about the referee.

"At least we came back, and showed a lot of heart. But we'll have to do that again in three weeks. But heart is something this team has, no matter what anyone says.

"So we have to be focused now on the bigger victory. Leinster is gone."