Westmeath's victory in this battle of the emerging counties was their first over Laois in 30 championships. It was a sweet afternoon for manager Brendan Lowry who spent the spring in dry dock, suspended for misbehaviour in the O'Byrne Cup final, a world away from the buzz of championship combat.

"We didn't give away too many frees until the end of the match," he explains, "and they got a few points from them when we lost our discipline a bit, but the backs worked very hard.

"We should have had them over at halftime. Dessie proved he had his head up when he kicked over more points after being unlucky with the penalty." Warming to the theme, he lists the reasons behind what rated, for most people, as a mild surprise.

"There were a lot of questions about our midfield. In the last couple of years Laois dominated midfield against us and I don't think they did that today. We're fresh.

"Laois hadn't seen us play barring league and challenges and our focus was totally on today. People say Westmeath never beat Laois. Sure that's gone now."

Next stop the semi-finals. Any preferences between Dublin and Wexford? "Five minutes to go and I would have taken anybody," he replies before generating a little frisson. "I still wouldn't rule out Wexford (Dublin's opponents next week). It's that type of championship.

"We were written off today, Offaly were written off yesterday, Antrim last week. It's that type of championship. We played Wexford and they're not bad."

Dessie Dolan cheerfully reflected on his missed penalty for Westmeath in the ninth minute. "Bit of indecision on my part.

"I took a fair few penalties this year and scored them all in the right corner so I was running up and I could see him moving that way and thought `he's got me' so I wasn't very decisive and he got his hand to it. It wasn't a great penalty but I recovered with a few points."

After a long and mournful period, the Laois dressing-room empties. Manager Tom Cribbin remains and answers the charge that some of his substitutes - Damien Delaney, Hugh Emerson and Beano McDonald - should have started the match.

"There were injuries. Beano's only back a couple of weeks after breaking his leg. Hugh Emerson was on crutches last week. They wouldn't have lasted 70 minutes. They had experience and we put them on when we thought that was needed but they weren't for 70 minutes."

There is still a year of his three-year appointment left? "I presume. Obviously the county board and myself will sit down in the coming weeks but it won't be left in the lurch. Either I'll stay or I'll go. Whatever's in the best interests of Laois football."