In the end it wasn't about playing in Croke Park or those 26 lost years. It was about sweet football written as music for the voices of Sligo. In the end it was a sort of homecoming.
It was a rage against the machine. Against those who always say Sligo freeze on the grand stage and against all the grand hopes of Kildare.
A spontaneous, fireball victory played out as if any refusal of the heart would mean death. And so begins another tale in the year of the great western saga.
Saturday afternoon will grow dimmer in time but never will the past haunt Sligo like it did before. The only question they left unanswered then is how much further they can go this summer. Few teams could have squeezed out more energy in the allotted time.
Down a man after just nine minutes, Peter Ford asked them to jump and they said how high. Through faultless construction and burning desire, they tore through Kildare in a way few teams have even tried.
Only a point at the finish but whether they were three points up or three down they never looked like losers.
Eamonn O'Hara can't quite find the words to describe it, nor is there an obvious turn of phrase for the heights of his performance. "Well we have our own self belief in Sligo. It doesn't get much attention in the media but we know we can compete with the best of them.
"We just kept at it the whole match, with 14 men, and still beat a team like Kildare. Hard to describe alright. But we fear nobody now.
When this draw started off everyone was looking for the likes of ourselves, the so-called weaker teams. Now who wants us? We know it will take another 70 minutes and we know what it takes to win." O'Hara orchestrated so much of this victory, chasing down the middle of Croke Park like a wild horse and unbound by the guard of Kildare's half-backs. Dessie Sloyane and Gerry McGowan were the point-makers, smooth and consistent throughout. Others like full back Mark Cosgrove and Dara McGarty - who reappeared as a substitute - and Padraig Doohan may never see better days.
"Unbelievable." That's the first word from Peter Ford. "So much actually went wrong for us, losing Paul Taylor before the game and a man sent off so soon. And we did have to change our game in the second half. We were trying to play in direct but we wasted a lot of scores by kicking the ball down the middle.
"Our game would normally be more direct but since they had the extra man we had no choice but to run at them. But sure we defended very well also. And I don't believe philosophy that we always froze on a big day. All these players have great self-belief. They've worked awful hard and they deserve what they got."
Neil Carew was the man sent walking nine minutes in for a collision with Padraig Brennan that no one seemed to see except the linesman and umpires. Otherwise, all the talk about Croke Park's daunting setting for the unexposed was mere media fodder.
"We came in here the night before, and that helped. We walked around a bit and we were relaxed all day coming into this. It was no big deal."
As far as Ford is concerned, if they can repeat this performance and get some of their players back then they'll give any team a hard game. It's a statement backed up by the fact that Kildare didn't play badly. They were missing some big name players and recent training sessions resembled the battle of wounded knee but the likes of Padraig Brennan, Martin Lynch and Eddie McCormack didn't do a whole lot wrong.
"We're very, very disappointed but sure we'll have to keep going and that's it," said Mick O'Dwyer, trying his best to draw his cunning smile. "Sure we had a few chances to equalise at the finish and maybe we could have, but Sligo played some marvellous football. They showed great commitment the whole way through."
But three games in three weeks? That can't be easy: "Well the injuries were the big thing. It's not easy to replace the players of calibre we lost. That's part and parcel of football but I think two weeks of a break between games would give teams a chance to get injured players right. "But Sligo well deserved the win. They fought and contested every ball like tigers and I tell you it will take a good team to beat these fellows. They are no flash in the pan."
Lasy Luck just ran out for Kildare. Niall Buckley pulled a hamstring on Tuesday night and Ken Doyle pulled a muscle in his back getting out of bed on Saturday morning. Also gone were Martin Ryan and Glenn Ryan. But O'Dwyer tells us he'll be back again next year, and leaves us to write our headlines about Sligo.
