Laois ...1-15 Meath...1-12: It was a beautiful spring afternoon in Portlaoise with the sun beaming down on O'Moore Park.
Suitably inspired by the championship conditions the footballers of Laois and Meath gave us all a rocking good match with the Leinster champions underlining their new status by reeling in a hefty deficit and taking the visitors in a finely judged burst for the tape.
Although Mick O'Dwyer gravely assured everyone that he takes every match seriously, it is well known that the National League has sometimes struggled to quicken his pulse over five decades of intercounty involvement. Still after his team's poor start to this year's Allianz NFL campaign, the Laois manager was very happy with the season's first win.
"We'd gone through a very hard patch and were geared up for this although at seven down, it didn't look good. But we fought back and are improving all the time. We want to stay in this division and are looking forward to the rest of the games."
And he can look forward with more confidence than of late. The primary reason for this is the return from injury of the team's best forwards.
Beano McDonald has tended to dominate any assessments of Laois' attacking potential but the growing evidence is that he is in the happy position of being able to share the burden of celebrity.
Ross Munnelly's progress last year from replacement to All Star nominee looks like continuing apace. His return yesterday yielded seven points, three from play and a succession of frees that broke the back of Meath's lead.
The afternoon began on a sombre note with a minute's silence to mark a double bereavement. The passing of Cormac McAnallen was marked by a lone Tyrone flag held aloft to flutter in the gentle breeze. To the shock of that sudden death was added further sadness when Paddy Rustchitzko, captain of Laois in the 1949 All-Ireland hurling final, passed away at the weekend.
Laois started better and were two ahead in the sixth minute but there followed a 15-minute spell that looked to have effectively settled the match and confirmed Laois' run of poor form. During this phase Meath ran up 1-6 without reply.
When Seán Boylan talked about taking positives afterwards he presumably had in mind his team's attacking play in the first half. With enough physicality between Evan Kelly and Joe Sheridan to establish a platform, Meath worked a succession of tasty moves and finished with some good shooting.
Sheridan in particular looks what the Sigerson campaign with UCD suggested, an in-form player with plenty of prospects. Overall Meath's total contained only one free and the attack all scored from play with the exception of Donal Curtis, who had to be replaced in the 19th minute by Trevor Giles.
The goal came in the 16th minute and O'Dwyer was still irritated by it after the match. Brian Farrell's long kick picked out Evan Kelly who ran along the end line and managed to lay off a hand pass which Sheridan, without much distraction, flicked to the net.
But the match swung again when Laois, whose kicking for scores had been all over the place, finally got some rhythm going. Mick Lawlor served up a couple of points to bring his total to three, Munnelly kicked his first frees and Kevin Fitzpatrick surged through the middle for a point.
The interval might have been even more encouraging for Laois had Meath goalkeeper David Gallagher not saved an admittedly weak shot from Chris Conway but then again the slick breakout from defence that followed the save deserved better than Ray Magee's wide at the other end.
Gallagher was again in action shortly after the break, this time to very necessary effect. A good movement by Laois opened up a chance for Noel Garvan, who placed the ball across the face of the Meath goal but the goalkeeper read it well and saved at full stretch.
Garvan was by this stage taking control at centrefield and earned a considerable plaudit from his manager. "I thought Noel Garvan was outstanding in the middle of the field. He dominated it even though we were missing Pádraig Clancy. I'd say it was the best game I've seen him play."
Despite the rising graph of Laois' game and Meath's declining urgency, the margin between the teams remained at two and three points, the visitors always able to keep their opponents at arm's length.
It was Munnelly that wrested control of the match from Meath. His two points just before the hour cut the deficit to one point for the first time in 50 minutes and seconds later he combined with Garvan to create another opportunity for Fitzpatrick. This time he got the goal firmly in his crosshairs and even Gallagher couldn't stop it.
Meath didn't score for the final 15 minutes and Laois stretched themselves. Fitzpatrick did get the line for a second yellow card and Laois had a goal disallowed for a fairly obvious push but the concluding action was a final point, appropriately from Munnelly.
LAOIS: M Nolan; P McDonald, D Mulhall, T McDonald; J Higgins, T Kelly (0-1), D Brennan; K Fitzpatrick (1-1), N Garvan; R Munnelly (0-7, four frees), I Fitzgerald, M Lawlor (0-3); B McDonald (0-1), C Kelly (0-1), C Conway (0-1). Subs: C Byrne for Brennan (47 mins), P Conway for T McDonald (50 mins).
MEATH: D Gallagher; P Reynolds, T O'Connor, M O'Reilly; S MacGabhann, D Fay, S Kenny; N Crawford, C McCarthy (0-1); R Magee (0-2), D Curtis, D Byrne (0-1); B Farrell (0-2), E Kelly (0-2), J Sheridan (1-3, one point a free). Subs: T Giles (0-1) for Curtis (19 mins), N McKeigue for MacGabhann (59 mins), D Regan for Farrell (63 mins), O Murphy for Magee (69 mins).
Referee: P Fox (Westmeath).
