Fitzpatrick believes Laois are in forward gear

Considering Laois only scored two points in the first half of their last match it's no surprise that manager Mick O'Dwyer has tweaked his attack for Sunday's Leinster football semi-final against Kildare.

Something had to change, and one possibility was the positioning of full forward Kevin Fitzpatrick - not because he played particularly badly against Offaly - because his proven versatility presented the obvious temptation to try him elsewhere.

In the end, O'Dwyer settled on three changes, and left Fitzpatrick at full forward - even though he admits himself he doesn't like playing there. Not that he's complaining too much. He took over the Laois captaincy as his club-mate Colm Parkinson fulfils his wanderlust so he's obliged to say the right things, but, like the whole Laois team, Fitzpatrick is just relishing the chance to make up for the wrongs of the last day.

"Definitely," he says. "We know ourselves that we just didn't perform against Offaly. Especially in the first half, when we weren't at the races at all. We kicked two points. One from play by a midfielder and the other one a free. That's not good enough to win games.

"So we have to improve an awful lot against Kildare or else we know we're going to be out of it."

It will be three weeks on Sunday since Laois edged past their old rivals thanks to the late, late goal from Ross Munnelly. That result caused a sudden realignment of the Leinster football championship, with Laois's tag as provincial favourites going straight down the drain.

On the same afternoon, Kildare rose above expectations to beat reigning champions Westmeath, and with that their aspirations reached fresh heights.

"Yeah, we know we're very lucky to be still in the Leinster championship after the way we beat Offaly," adds Fitzpatrick. "But that's just the way football goes. You have to put the ball over the bar and into the back of the net. Everyone was talking about Offaly kicking 19 wides, but we got the scores to win the game on the day. We're very much looking forward to Sunday now, but we know it's going to be a very tough one again.

"But the big difference now is having the game under our belt. Just look at Kildare, who just scraped past Wicklow the first day, and then we saw how they improved after that. So it does mean an awful lot to get the first game over with, especially at championship level."

Fitzpatrick will have three different forwards for company this time. Brian "Beano" McDonald makes his first start since breaking his leg in last year's qualifier against Tyrone, replacing Leaving Cert student Donie Brennan.

Barry Brennan and former Kerry minor Billy Sheehan both come into the half forward line, replacing Ian Fitzgerald and Gary Kavanagh.

"Beano has made a huge effort to get back to where he is," explains Fitzpatrick. "Against Offaly it was 10 months to the day since he'd broken the leg, and he hadn't been back in Croke Park since. That was hard enough in itself, because it must have been difficult for him, thinking back on it and all. From what I've seen, he's been working very hard, especially with the weights before he could do any running. And also doing a lot on his own, maybe four or fives times a week.

"Donie has being doing the Leaving Cert since last Wednesday, so he's under enough pressure as it is. But Barry Sheehan has been a big addition. To be honest he made the big difference when he came on against Offaly. He just ran at the defenders and caused a lot of problems for them. And that was exactly what we needed, and it gave us all a lift.

"Then Barry Brennan was there throughout 2003, but coming off injury, and maybe playing for 10 or 15 minutes at the end of games. Then he was injured all of last year. He's back flying fit at the moment, and hopefully he'll have a good game on Sunday."

Fitzpatrick's own positioning at full forward is clearly by design rather than a personal longing. He did feature in the full forward line when he first made his name for Laois in the All-Ireland minor winning team of 1996, but when they finally won the Leinster senior title again in 2003 he was at left wing back. He also played at midfield for Portlaoise during their recent provincial success.

So has he finally found his most comfortable position? "Well, not really, no. I much prefer to be facing on to the ball and running into the ball instead of coming out and having to turn for it and all that. I hadn't actually played full forward for a long time before I came back on to the panel this year.

"I'm much more used to being out in the middle of the park. And I prefer to be out there. You don't mind too much once you're picked, but it was usually if someone was injured I'd go in there to fill the gap. So I'd say I've played nearly everywhere on the field, bar corner back and goalkeeper. So I'm well used to moving around."