THE Dowdallshill club did a smashing job of hosting Saturday's Cadbury's Leinster U-21 Football Championship quarter-final between Louth and Dublin.

St Brigid's Park is just outside the town of Dundalk. It's a neat ground. There's a small seated stand on one side and banking around the rest of the venue.

The sun shone. The pitch was in good order. The club shop was selling tea, coffee and the rest. There's a fine clubhouse.

The Barton's bus arrived early. Close on 1,000 spectators came through the turnstiles.

A cheerful welcome at the gate. And at half-time a tray full of sandwiches arrived in the press box. "Any hungry reporters here," quipped a friendly official.

As Tommy Cooper might say, the sambos disappeared 'just like that'.

Dublin almost disappeared themselves -- out of the Championship with 21 wides in the kitty.

But in the second period of extra-time, they broke for the border, emerging on the scoreline of 1-14 to 1-8.

It was a severe test. Louth had a game behind them. They handsomely beat Wexford. The young Dubs can now forget their plans for the St Patrick's Day parade.

traditionalists

They'll be on semi-final duty away to Carlow, who beat Offaly on Saturday, or Kilkenny.

"Louth had a good backing behind them, so I hope a big number of Dublin followers will travel on St Patrick's Day," remarked Dublin manager, Jim Gavin.

He was delighted and relieved to be still in the hat.

"Well regarding Championship football, there are a lot of traditionalists out there who favour the straight knock-out, and I am one of them," added Gavin.

"Win or you are knocked out. You just can't beat that, and thankfully we came out on the right side against Louth.

"We have plenty of work to do in the next couple of weeks. But that's always a good thing.

"We created a lot of opportunities, but we didn't take a lot of them. I accept that. We made mistakes, but that's part of the game.

"I thought Louth defended well. They put our guys under pressure.

"It was a very competitive game. But I was always confident that we'd come through. I knew the lads had it in them to dig deep. There's a good spirit in the squad.

"They showed great resolve. There's such a willingness there to fight for the county jersey. That's what we talk to them about, and that's all we expect of them," said the 1995 All-Ireland winner.

Jonny Cooper is the Dublin captain. The game was a minute into injury-time when he proved why he has the job.

The Dubs trailed by a point. Cooper, a polished right half-back, got on the ball. He was about 35 to 40 yards from the Louth posts and a bit to the right.

Engineering a pass in order to get closer to the sticks looked the wise option. But no.

It was time to stand and deliver. Jonny had a pop. And over she sailed -- 1-7 apiece.

The Dubs were saved. All 14 of them. Darragh Nelson had been straight red carded seven minutes into the second period.

Dean Rock's goal helped the Dubs lead at half-time in extra-time, 1-2 to 0-4.

It was Dublin ahead by two points at half-time in extra-time, 1-9 to 1-7. Louth's Páraic Smith cut it back to one with a free early in it's second half.

Then Barry O'Hehir found himself clear of the traffic and in on goal. It was a Lyric FM moment. Barry kept the ball low but it tumbled off the outside of the right-hand post.

The Blues began to hum after that. Lucan's David Quinn had made a valuable impression when he came off the bench.

But overall it was a day for guts and determination. "I felt if we could have beaten Dublin we had a good chance of getting to the final," noted Louth chief, Kieran Maguire.

And they very nearly managed it. But this was an exam that will do wonders for the Leinster champs.

The Barton's bus headed back down the M1. The dreams for 2010 were still on board.

- Niall Scully