O'Brien extremely proud of his team's battling qualities

Maybe it was because they had avoided a bitter defeat or that they relished the prospect of a replay. Whatever the reasons the Meath and Laois managers appeared happy men when they showed in the Croke Park media centre to talk with waiting journalists. Sean Dempsey joked about not having any challenge game organised for next Saturday so the replay with Meath will have to do! He joked that goalkeeper Michael Nolan was buying a round of drinks for the team. It was good humour all around. When he came in later Eamonn O'Brien also appeared in buoyant mood no doubt delighted that his side had avoided defeat after looking for so long like they were going to win it. He wasn't too disappointed with the final outcome, he insisted. Relieved in fact that Meath were still in the race after such a topsy-turvy afternoon of relentless, breakneck action. It was a case of never mind the quality feel the excitement. He spoke of how Laois had the last chance to win the game yet just couldn't do it - and now another big day awaited. There is a sense that the Meath manager would rather dispense with all the post-match media hullabaloo. Yet it is an integral part of the modern manager's job and there were questions to be answered about Meath's display that contained a mixture of the good and the bad. There were no dissenters when he put forward his view that the effort from all the players was first class. The high tempo of play on the energy-sapping damp surface ensured that there was something in this game to keep the spectators enthralled even those who had come to watch Dublin and Wexford. They are after all only amateurs, O'Brien pointed out, yet the effort, the application was first-rate. Nobody could have expected more. Was he concerned about Meath's fade out in normal time and in extra-time when they relinquished substantial leads? "I wouldn't say it was a fade out, it's the way these games go, when they're ding, dong one team goes up and gets a score and maybe even a second one and you think that's it all of a sudden they get a score and there's just a point in it again," he said. He said it was disappointing to concede a three-point lead in extra-time attributing the turnaround to "tired limbs" with the wet conditions reducing everything to a lottery. "This game is not something you can plan and strategise for, the players have to do it themselves, do it intuitively and that's the way football is, you can't set out a plan and say it's going to work like that." He added that Crawford would not be risked for the replay unless he his fully fit. Afterwards out on the corridor Laois boss Dempsey stopped to talk to the Meath Chronicle. He felt that even at five points behind his side were still in contention. Anything more and it was trouble. "From the Meath manager's point of view he might feel that they could have pushed on but I'd say at the end of the day, he knows those boys gave everything out there, you could see it in their faces, he has to be happy with them just as I am with our fellows," he said. He said there was "great comraderie" in the Laois camp and that spirit helped them through on Sunday. Dempsey added that he greatly enjoyed battles with Meath as they were "always honest and fair." He added: "I had a few battles myself and I still feel the pain. From a Laois point of view I'd like to see Meath out of the championship from a football point of view those Meath lads didn't deserve to lose that match today." He picked out Joe Sheridan and Shane O'Rourke for special mention. Now it's onto the next episode.