In the end, it was Kildare who did the chasing down, kicking three points in the last five minutes to force a draw against Laois in the Leinster SFC quarter-final. The replay will take place at O’Connor Park, Tullamore, next Saturday, throw-in 7pm.
Speaking afterwards to RTÉ Sport, Laois forward Donie Kingston summed up the drawn game as "a tough encounter and the tackling and the running off the ball was immense.
“In championship football, you have to play to the very end" Donie Kingston
“Both sides gave it everything and I suppose a draw was a fair result at the end of the day.”
Kildare’s Emmet Bolton took much satisfaction in the way his side salvaged parity from the Tullamore clash. Also speaking to RTÉ Sport, he said: “The character we showed in the last five minutes to battle back from three points down was very pleasing.
“Overall, we were relieved to get the draw, but there is a tinge of disappointment that we didn’t win the game.
"We must bring our free count down and our transition from defence to attack will have to improve" Emmet Bolton
Looking ahead to the replay, both camps are determined to work harder and learn from the mistakes made.
“In championship football, you have to play to the very end and that’s the thing we’ll take from today,” said Kingston.
“Both teams hit bad wides with the wind and you have to make any advantage count.
"We’ll sit down and have a look at the video and see where exactly where we went wrong.
Bolton bemoaned the concession of “handy frees” in the Lilywhites’ play.
"We must bring our free count down and our transition from defence to attack will have to improve. We got turned over far too often and I don't think our shot selection was good enough.
"I'm confident we can make the necessary improvements. We have a good panel of players and they'll be many guys pushing for starting places the next day."
