Leinster SFC Semi-final: Dublin 0-14 Laois 0-16 A momentous weekend for the Leinster football championship culminated in champions Dublin being unceremoniously dethroned by Mick O'Dwyer's Laois.

There was curiously little doubt about the outcome until the frantic closing minutes when, as if suddenly apprised of the urgency of the situation, Dublin poured forward but could only narrow the margin of defeat to two points.

It was a stunning surprise for the team but the origins of the champions' difficulties were obscured against Louth and the menace posed by Laois was all too predictable. The general favouritism accorded Dublin was as much a reflection of reservations about the mental strength of Laois as a consensus assessment of the champions' superiority.

In the event Laois comfortably answered such doubts.

They established a grip on the match from an early stage and having run up a sizeable lead, kept Dublin at bay and countered with telling attacks which frequently ended in scores.

In fact it was Dublin who betrayed all the signs of flakiness. Four good goal chances went unrealised due to a combination of an alert defence and lack of conviction in the finish. They were unable to raise their game at crucial intervals and decision-making was generally poor - particularly in the frequent situations when referee Aidan Mangan allowed them play an advantage after fouls.

A fortnight previously the team had moved easily against Louth. Ciarán Whelan and Darren Magee hacked up at centrefield, running their elderly opponents into the ground. The party was over yesterday. Laois successfully stymied Whelan's big runs forward and controlled the sector.

Even when the ball was broken, which happened frequently, the midlanders were sharper and quicker to the ball. When Laois fielded ball, their attacks were poorly defended. As a result Dublin's defence was under enormous pressure and not doing particularly well.

Dublin manager Tommy Lyons forlornly noted the absence of the hunger that had driven his team last year and lamented his players' inability to compete in the middle third of the field. Although it wasn't his only problem it was certainly a source of a number of them.

At the start Lyons had swapped the flanks of his defence, bringing Paul Griffin over to mark Beano McDonald and Barry Cahill on to Ian Fitzgerald. Colin Moran and Paul Casey switched wings. It made little difference to the way Laois attacked, getting the ball into space for McDonald and Fitzgerald to cause problems. Paddy Christie was in commanding form at full back for Dublin but whenever the ball was kept away from him the defence was in trouble.

But the champions' greatest failing was in attack.

Against Louth the steady accumulation of points had finished the match and a great number of scores had been secured in a relatively unpressured environment. There was nothing easy on offer yesterday and Dublin struggled.

It could have been very different if a number of goal chances hadn't counted for nothing. This failing went to the heart of why Dublin were so unrecognisable from the side that swaggered to last year's provincial title.

Ray Cosgrove, whose golden boot turned a number of matches last year, appears to be suffering from a crisis of confidence despite a great start when he scored a fine point after 20 seconds.

He had two chances yesterday that would have set green flags waving a summer ago. The first in the ninth minute could have changed the trend of the match but after getting a rebound from Alan Brogan's shot, Cosgrove rushed his shot and it was blocked.

On the hour Tom Mulligan intercepted a clearance and sent an admittedly tricky pass into his full forward but Cosgrove couldn't hold the ball and the chance was lost.

He wasn't, however, the only one. Shane Ryan and Brogan set up, respectively, Liam Ó hEineachain and Mulligan only for the shots to be blocked. Deprived of the goals that had fuelled their challenge last season Dublin looked a fairly ordinary attacking force.

Signs weren't good as early as the second minute when Mulligan kicked a 13-metres free, albeit from a tight angle, wide.

Laois had no such problems. Over the afternoon they kicked only six wides. Some of their scores were well worked and others were conspicuous examples of marksmanship but there was no mistaking the threat from their sharp incursions - so at variance with Dublin's laboured and meandering build-ups and dire inaccuracies, which caused them to exceed their opponents' wides total by double figures.

If O'Dwyer had any complaints at half-time it might have been that Padraig Clancy could have had a goal.

The towering Laois centrefielder punched through the middle of Dublin's defence and fired over the bar when greater reward beckoned but even by the 25th minute Laois were content to play the percentages.

There were only two points in it at half-time but already it was hard to see where Dublin were going to find salvation. Worryingly for Lyons, none of his team changes had worked. Ó hEineachain was struggling in an attack where only Brogan represented a serious threat and Paul Casey wasn't doing anything to support his recall ahead of David Henry.

Tomás Quinn was brought on for the second half and he at least steadied the place-kicking jitters, which had seen Mulligan and Brian Cullen miss kickable dead-ball chances. Shortly afterwards the dropped Senan Connell was introduced and immediately injected some urgency into the attack but even at this stage the clock was running on Dublin's comeback attempts.

Each time they tried to get some momentum going, Laois were able to craft a response. Initially it was the wing forwards Ross Munnelly and Gary Kavanagh - who more than justified O'Dwyer's faith in him with two fine points.

Centre-back Tom Kelly was a force-field of energy even with his broken finger and although Dublin picked up possession on the 40, little came of it and none of the several candidates tried there managed to inhibit Kelly's rampaging runs.

By the end of the third quarter the margin was down to two after a sustained burst by Dublin but within a couple of minutes Laois had stretched it again to four with a free from Munnelly and a tight-angle point squeezed over by Michael Lawlor.

Dublin moved Whelan to full forward but then failed to supply him with the sort of high ball that might have paid out a jackpot. Score of the closing phase came from a massive strike by Clancy after he had swooped on a high ball and powered forward.

Emblematically it ended with the margin down to two and Colin Moran inexplicably going for a point with only seconds remaining. Inevitably it drifted wide.

DUBLIN: 1. S Cluxton; 4. P Griffin, 3. P Christie, 2. B Cahill; 7. C Moran (0-1), 6. J Magee, 5. P Casey; 8. C Whelan, 9. D Magee; 10. T Mulligan (0-3), 11. S Ryan (0-1), 12. B Cullen; 13. A Brogan (0-3), 14. R Cosgrove (0-2), 15. L Ó hEineachain. Subs: 21. T Quinn (0-3, two frees) for Ó hEineachain (half-time), 20. S Connell (0-1) for Cullen (43 mins), 18. C Goggins for Casey (56 mins), 24. D Homan for Ryan (59 mins), 25. D O'Callaghan for Cosgrove (69 mins).

LAOIS: 1. F Byron; 2. A Fennelly, 3. C Byrne, 4. J Higgins; 5. D Rooney, 6. T Kelly, 7. K Fitzpatrick; 8. P Clancy (0-2), 9. N Garvan; 10. R Munnelly (0-3, two frees), 11. M Lawlor (0-1), 12. G Kavanagh (0-2); 13. I Fitzgerald (0-2), 14. D Delaney (0-4, three frees), 15. B McDonald (0-2). Subs: 20. H Emerson for Fitzgerald (53 mins), 17. S Kelly for Delaney (65 mins).

Referee: A Mangan (Kerry).