Laois manager John Sugrue said he was relieved to have achieved promotion from Division 4 after his side's one-point win over Carlow in Netwatch Cullen Park.
Sugrue's team have escaped the bottom tier at the first attempt after going unbeaten in their campaign to date, though their weather disrupted game against third placed Antrim will now not be played as it is immaterial to the promotion race.
They'll instead proceed directly to the Division 3 final where they'll do battle with Carlow once more, this time in Croke Park. Today's contest did little to whet anyone's appetite for that clash.
Laois won out on the rather telling scoreline of 1-06 to 0-08 and the victors only registered one point in the second half.
Sugrue, however, isn't inclined to dwell on the manner of the victory and is satisfied that Laois ground out a victory against stubborn opposition by whatever means were required.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he said it wouldn't have mattered if Laois had failed to score in the second half as long they won.
"We're relieved. Just delighted to have gotten promoted from Division 4. That's what we set out to do at the start of the year. We've got our promotion and we've earned it and they made us earn it big-time today.
"The scoreboard reads that we're one point up. If you were to score no point in the second half it makes no difference. We've got our win and that's what we came to do. It was an arm wrestle but that's football.
"They (Carlow) made it superbly difficult for us. And you have to admire their gameplan. They really stick to it, they're a really tight group.
"At times we played quite decent football. And then more times, we lacked a little bit of discipline and a little bit of structure. We're in Division 4. Any team in Division 4 has work to do.
"We've one more game which is the league final next weekend. It's a pity that we're not playing Antrim because I think they're a decent side as well so it would have been nice to test ourselves against them. That's the way it is. We'll move on and play our last game in the League and see how we go."
