Dempsey steadies the ship

Funny how the opening game of the 2007 football championship was celebrated in ways more associated with winning the thing outright.

But in some ways it meant almost as much to Longford. They hadn't won a Leinster championship match in six years and yesterday's thrilling victory over Westmeath will go some way towards making up for that.

It must also have left some mixed feelings for manager Luke Dempsey, who helped inflict defeat on the team he once adored. Still, he was in no way hiding his delight and rated it as possibly the finest moment of his increasingly impressive management career. "It's the way you win a match," he said, "but not for any personal reasons. I wouldn't even make eye contact with some of the Westmeath players I know so well because you're in a different job.

"But to be eight points down at half-time in a Leinster championship match and to win is as good as it gets. Not because of who we beat."

Dempsey's half-time talk quickly become the subject of much interrogation afterwards, in case maybe he'd spilled something illegal into their water such was Longford's dramatic transformation.

"Of course it was a worry, but as manager all you can do is lift their heads, and send them out to do their best. It's not a crystal ball, and say we're going to get a goal after a minute, and come back from there.

"The wind was a big factor too. It did make the ball travel that much faster and when we had it behind us in the second half and the ball came into our forwards at speed I thought we were very dangerous.

"I also felt they were standing off their men, giving them too much respect. They had to start tackling better. They did all that and showed we have better forwards on the men. This will bring on their belief tremendously. Remember there are only 12 senior clubs in Longford, and they need every fillip they can get. As regards the Laois match now, who knows? They'll go in as big favourites. But that's the way we like it."

Team captain Damien Sheridan also lauded the change in attitude at half-time: "It was something we spoke of during the week. It's all right doing well in the qualifiers, but we wanted to do something in Leinster.

"We want to have ambitions of winning the Leinster championship and you can't do that until you win games in your province.

"It goes back to half-time in Killarney last against Kerry. People say Longford teams die. Go six or seven points down, and die. We'd roll over, and the supporters would go home and curse us for the rest of the year. Since that game against Kerry last year we put down a marker, said we're not going to be rolled over again. It was the same here today."

The hero of the afternoon was Brian Kavanagh, an All Star nominee last year and an early contender for an award outright this year. His 2-6 contribution was priceless, and also his determination to raise his game after a poor first half. "Luke just settled us all down at the break," he explained. "We didn't speak for three or four minutes. Just gathered our thoughts and said we'd give it a blast in the second. He was annoyed how easy we were being turned over.

"It's not that I was very worried, but I knew we needed a goal to get back on track. Thankfully we got two. Goals lift teams, and goals win games. The crowd really got behind us, and we got our momentum going. At the end Paul Barden caught the ball under his own goal, leading by example."

For Westmeath manager Tomás Ó Flatharta there could be no excuses: "We were conscious of how the wind would change things in the second half, but then two killer blows so early in the second half, that really changed it. They got a bit of momentum going, and it's very difficult to turn the engine back on again after something like that happening.

"We're not out until July now, but the qualifiers are there, and it's still all to play for. We've come back before, and we're determined to get it going again. We're very disappointed with this, but it's not the end of the world.

"The players are completely shattered, but give them a week or so and once they start playing football again they forget about all that."