It probably beat the alternative as far as the teams were concerned but the draw in yesterday's Leinster football final won't suit everybody. The Leinster Council will have another handy payday with a repeat attendance of 50,066 in prospect but Croke Park will hardly- welcome the additional delay in the rebuilding work necessitated by Saturday week's replay.

On an afternoon which remained dry, the teams served up a match which although it never threatened to engulf the venue, was tight, competitive and in the balance right up until the end and either side could have sneaked the verdict in the final minute.

Tom Carr is in his third year managing Dublin. Two years ago his debut championship ended in a replay defeat by Kildare but as he suggested, this time there was a whole different atmosphere surrounding the match. For the first time, his team rose to a big occasion and well deserved the second chance which Colin Moran's 69th-minute equaliser delivered.

"We played with a lot of pride and passion. I was happy with that but there were a lot of soft frees given away and our discipline at the back is something we're going to have to look at. It was gratifying because the talk was that Dublin hadn't had a test to date and that would be at the back of our minds and at the back of the players' minds - when the tempo was upped, were they going to be caught. I think we were well in it and led it."

On the debit side is the injury to full forward Ian Robertson whose career has been riddled with ill-fortune. Yesterday he suffered an ankle injury after an early collision with Brian Lacey. "Ian Robertson is in big trouble," according to his manager. "We have to get an x-ray on his ankle but we're afraid it may be broken."

Carr was understanding of referee Paddy Russell's decision to play only 20 seconds injury-time. "He probably played a bit short but I suppose in a way I was happy because it would be terrible to lose a game on a breaking ball or another soft free up front so from that point of view I think it was the fair thing to do."

Kildare have been going about this campaign a little too painstakingly and if they eventually win, will be the first champions since Meath's eight-match saga in 1991 to draw two rounds of the Leinster championship.

Willie McCreery, after an afternoon roaming between Kildare's centrefield and half forwards, thinks positively.

"It might actually sharpen us up a bit. I'm not sure if the hype got to us a little bit but we didn't play the same type of football we played against Offaly. Dublin played very well, they were strong running at us, very physical and I think we were lucky in the end. The next day we can only improve."

As regards Brian Stynes's missed free with three minutes remaining and the teams level, McCreery is unmoved.

"I thought that would have been an injustice if he had have got it because I thought Jim Gavin had handled the ball on the ground. We were blown up numerous times for handling the ball on the ground and it would have been a bit of an injustice. But those things level themselves out. We missed frees, they missed frees."

His view of the shortfall in injury-time was rather more sceptical than Tom Carr's.

"That's part of the GAA, isn't it? Get the crowd here again. I'll probably be sent off the next day for saying that."

Whoever emerges from the replay will face the 1998 All-Ireland champions Galway who completed the anticipated comfortable win over outsiders Leitrim in the Connacht final at Hyde Park in Roscommon.

Eight points was a respectable margin for the underdogs who would have been mindful that a partly fancied Sligo had been deluged in the semi-final.

An early goaled penalty by Derek Savage set Galway on their way and for a while it looked as if they might emulate the feat of holding Sligo scoreless in the first half but Leitrim avoided sharing that dubious distinction before going down by 1-13 to 0-8.