LEINSTER SFC FIRST ROUND: Longford 1-10 Laois 0-12: IT WAS reasonable to wonder in the build-up to this Leinster championship opener if a Longford win would be a shock worthy of the name.
Can it be a shock if every sharp and shrewdie in the land is practically dislocating a shoulder tipping the side of their nose about it? Both these teams will be playing in the same division next year after all – has our shock threshold really dipped so low?
Anyone checking in at half-time here would have got their answer. Longford were 0-3 to 0-9 behind and were no value for even that proximity. Laois were bigger, faster, stronger and better. They had reduced the game to a battle of the kick-outs and were winning it as they liked, albeit without really racking up the sort of gaudy total their dominance deserved.
Yes, they were kicking wides but they were the kind of wides a team ribs each other about on the Tuesday night after a comfortable victory. Few in the ground just then would have doubted that’s where the afternoon was headed.
So in the end, what had started out as not very much of a shock at all became a 24-carat stunner.
Glenn Ryan’s side pulled out the first Leinster championship win of his four-year reign by scoring 1-7 to Laois’s 0-3 in the second half and beating them for the first time in 44 years. Paul Barden’s goal five minutes after the break got the 5,587-strong crowd fizzing again after a first half that had sucked all life and expectation out of them.
That’s the trouble with quietly fancying a shock – you can be disabused of your notions and left feeling very wrong very quickly.
“You don’t necessarily feel the pressure,” said Ryan afterwards of the expectation-heavy build-up, “but you think you have it all sorted and coped with until the game starts. You look at it, it certainly did have an effect on us.
“The great thing is other years, six points would have turned to nine, would have turned to a moral defeat. But here, we did it slowly and it was hard work and it was tough. There is no doubt there’s improvement in us.”
There will have to be. Enjoyable as the result would have felt last night, Longford know that a less charitable side than Laois would have put them away in the first half.
With John O’Loughlin, Colm Begley and Billy Sheehan sponges for possession around centrefield and Brendan Quigley dropping back to screen in front of the full-back line, Laois had all the colours in their palette in that first period. They lived to regret only painting half a picture. O’Loughlin kicked three awful wides himself which can’t have gone unmentioned in Laois dressingroom at half-time.
Careless as Laois had been, it was still hard to fathom a way back into matters for the home side.
Not only were they losing, they were being bullied. Laois’s tactics were rarely more sophisticated than the strong-arm grab of midfield possession and the quick dispatch of it towards full-forward Pádraig Clancy but rarely did the tactics have to be. It was a physical mismatch, simple as that.
The momentum-changer Longford needed came five minutes into the second half, Paul Barden getting on the end of a quick-transfer passing move that ended with Seán McCormack flicking and inviting pass across the face of the Laois goal. David Barden had by now moved to midfield with Francis McGee and Pádraig McCormack coming on as half-time substitutes in the forward line.
Suddenly, all of Longford’s work was faster and more accurate and even though Laois scored the next two points, the whole tenor of the game was different now.
The Bardens stitched a point apiece, both of them little gems of patience and skill. Michael Quinn began running the game on his own, playing the pass of the day for Seán McCormack to pull another one back and then bending over one of his own to level matters with 10 minutes to go.
By the time Brian Kavanagh kicked his second of the day on 70 minutes, Longford had scored seven unanswered points and were two to the good.
Extra-time brought drama all of its own, Laois wing-forward Kevin Meaney palming home what most people thought was a legitimate square-ball goal until referee Michael Duffy pointed out that the ball in had come from a free kick and so couldn’t stand. Colm Kelly pointed a free at the death but Duffy blew up soon after the kick-out.
So a shock that wasn’t really a shock became a shock when all was said and won. Wexford are next up for Longford. Name a favourite for that one if you can.
LONGFORD: D Sheridan; D Brady, B Gilleran, D Reilly; C Smith, M Quinn (0-1), S Mulligan; B McElvanney, J Keegan; D Barden (0-1), P Barden (1-2), N Mulligan; D McElligott, B Kavanagh (0-2), S McCormack (0-4, 0-2 frees). Subs: P McCormack for N Mulligan (half-time), P Kelly for Keegan (half-time), F McGee for McElligott (50 mins), K Diffley for D Barden (66 mins), N Farrell for McElvanney (72 mins).
LAOIS:E Culliton; C Healy, K Lillis, P O'Leary; D Strong (0-2), S Julian, C Boyle (0-1); J O'Loughlin, B Quigley; K Meaney (0-1), B Sheehan, C Begley (0-1); R Munnelly (0-2), P Clancy, G Walsh (0-4, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45). Subs: M Timmons for Julian (42 mins), C Kelly (0-1) for Munnelly (63 mins), D O'Connor for Walsh (66 mins).
Referee:M Duffy (Sligo).
RYAN THANKS HIS LUCKY STARS
POST-MATCH TALK:GLENN Ryan stopped in the middle of the field to ponder what had just gone down. His Longford side had lost an arm- wrestle in the first half but had found a way to turn it into a game of kiss-chase in the second, writes Malachy Clerkin.
On another day against another team, the physical deficit would have crippled them. But Laois were in a benign mood and paid the price for their generosity.
“Luck had a huge amount to do with it,” admitted Ryan. “Last year we probably kicked it away – Laois won by a point. This year Laois will probably say they kicked it away – we won by a point. We were disappointed with a lot of things, the start being one, elements of our second half you’d be disappointed in. We probably saved our worst performance of the year for the biggest day of the year.
“It’s just very hard when they are trying to make a breakthrough. To be able to take the pressure over the last couple of weeks . . . they were on their home patch, and everybody expecting them to turn over a big gun like Laois. They’re a remarkable bunch of players.”
For Justin McNulty, the bitter lash of a game his side left after them. Some better shooting would have left Longford playing for respectability in the second half but their carelessness cost them in the worst possible way.
“I think we controlled the game for long periods,” said the Laois manager.
“We probably weren’t as ruthless as we needed to be in front of goal – I think the wide count will verify that.
“The goal was crucial for them. When it looked like they were dead and buried the goal gave them the confidence to come back. Probably the biggest factor was that they took their chances and we didn’t.”
