REGRETS? Both sides will have a few. Neither, though can make a persuasive case against the naturally just outcome of yesterday's AIB women's football final at Croke Park. Monaghan pinched the lead by means of a lucky penalty, Laois snatched parity through a freakish free kick Everyone deserved a second chance.

The novelty of yesterday's late reprieve, a left-footed Lulu Carroll free kick dipping into the roof of the Monaghan net, shouldn't be permitted to disguise the quality of Laois's performance for the preceding hour when, despite struggling at midfield, they produced most of the more creative attacking moves.

Monaghan, playing with some", flexibility in their formation allowed both Voreen Quigley and Jenny Greenan to dabble in mid-field matters. Greenan in particular made an eye-catching impact, dove-tailing well with Anita O'Reilly and joining the attack whenever the chance arose.

Greenan's acute footballing instincts rescued Monaghan early on when Laois looked as if they might canter away with the game.

With Linda Brennan opening the scoring in the second minute, the sublime Sue Ramsbottom quickly tagged on two points as Laois located their rhythm early on. On five minutes, however, Angela Larkin crashed a ball off the Laois bar and the rebound fell kindly for Greenan who slotted home from the edge of the small square.

By then Voreen Quigley was foraging in midfield in the company of Laois's Mary Casey. Quigley was getting the better of affairs early on and blasted wide from a good position not long after Greenan's goal.

The other midfield duel was breaking more evenly, however, with Carroll's elegant football shining through occasionally in the company of the combative Linda Farrelly. Carroll it was who provided the pass of the game on 17 minutes when a long, perceptive pass from midfield found Mary Kehoe free on the right wing. Kehoe, sensing that such a pass deserved a grace note, clipped over a fine point to squeeze Laois back in front.

So it went for the remainder of the half, never more than a point separating the sides. Laois made good use of Linda Brennan's size and spatial awareness at centre forward and developed several promising moves down the right wing.

With midfield struggling, however, and Brennan seldom entirely free of the attentions of Jenny Greenan, the scores were proving hard to come by. In the end it took a moment of inspiration from Ramsbottom to put daylight between the teams again.

With half-time bearing down and Monaghan ahead by a point, Ramsbottom came deep for a quick free. Taking receipt on the 50-yard line, she turned her marker, Mairead Kelly, and suddenly accelerated towards goal. Rocketing over the 21-yard line she let loose a shot which carried both pace and guile and dipped over the flailing arms of Ann Gavan and into the top corner of the Monaghan net. Ramsbottom has been scoring goals all summer, but neither she nor anyone else has scored one better.

While the 13,964 attendance were still admiring Ramsbottom's handywork, Monaghan came to and clipped two wides before the break, an adequate warning of their determination to up the tempo for the second half.

Looking for a little more productivity up front, Laois introduced 15-year-old Serena King in the second half for wing forward Martina Phelan. Like Phelan before her, however, King found the hard-tackling Monaghan half-back line a little stifling.

The sides swapped points for the first 10 minutes, with Laois finally stretching their advantage to three points before Monaghan asserted themselves, picking of a couple of points through Margeret Kierans and Angela Larkin.

Then a rather obscure infringement in the square afforded Monaghan a penalty, which Larkin converted with some ease on 48 minutes, giving the Ulster champions a three-point lead.

If Laois had complaints about the penalty they couldn't claim to have been fighting anything but a rear-guard action for the previous 10 minutes or so. Aileen Aherne had come into midfield, with Mary Casey dropping back into the centre back slot vacated by the substituted Anna Connolly.

Sensing the shifting of the tide, Ramsbottom quickly switched out to a centre forward posting in the hope of picking up a little more ball with which to supplement hear tally of 1-3. Monaghan made a switch of their own, however, introducing the lively Linda Gartlan from Inniskeen; the move yielded two points, between which a converted Laois free was sandwiched.

Going to the death then, Monaghan nurtured a three-point lead and had chances to wrap the game up. Kierans and Larkin both had wides while Gartlan saw a goal attempt saved.

Refusing to be panicked, however, Laois stuck to their principles, moving the ball well out ought defence and finding Rams bottom just as the game went into injury time.

The immediate danger presented by the Timahoe woman drew a foul out on the 21-yard line. Carroll took the ball in her hands, glanced up once and suddenly the net shimmered. All inquiries should be directed to the sleepy Monaghan defence.

A date and venue for the replay have yet to be announced. The longest summer continues for some of the hardest working footballers in the land.