If Kilmacud Crokes go on and win this season's Leinster Club SFC, no-one will be able to say they did it the easy way.

A dramatic four-point defeat of Louth champions Newtown Blues yesterday was their sixth championship game in 25 days. They've overcome second-half lapses in each of the last two weekends and withstood the absence of the influential Cian O'Sullivan.

Slowly, their jewel-encrusted forward line is clicking into gear and they've shown the character to suppress comebacks from two of Leinster club football's lesser-known names.

It bodes well in one respect, but they could find themselves in a more precarious position in two weeks' time if there's a third lull in three games when they meet Meath champions Navan O'Mahony's.

As with last week's defeat of Celbridge, Crokes were billed as clear favourites. In keeping with the pattern of that game too, Crokes were 0-9 to 0-3 ahead at the break.

And in a mirror image of their defeat of the Kildare side, Crokes endured second-half troubles before sealing their spot in a mouth-watering provincial semi-final against O'Mahony's.

Still, Crokes very nearly got stuck in the Parnell Park mud yesterday, but an audacious late Mark Vaughan goal and two sumptuous long-range points from Brian Kavanagh spared them a shock defeat.

Despite erroneous reports about the well-being of Newtown forward Colm Judge, the Blues started with their strongest side but were hapless in the first half as Crokes scythed through their flimsy rearguard and played some direct, stylish football in spite of the soft underfoot conditions.

Ross O'Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Paul Griffin -- lining out at centre-back in O'Sullivan's absence -- were so assured and commanding at the back that the minimal possession Newtown were surviving on meant little purchase on the scoreboard.

Crokes, on the other hand, were humming. Back for his first game after a 12-week suspension, Ray Cosgrove started well; kicked a point, made one for Brian Kavanagh, and though he faded a little in the second half, his return bodes well for their fortunes from here on in.

Pat Burke drove incessantly forward from the wing. Mark Davoren's pace and ball-winning abilities were opening gaps all over the place.

But it was Vaughan and Kavanagh who were doing the real damage. Vaughan's frees were close to faultless and the few times he dropped deep and showed off his phenomenal foot-passing range, he inevitably found a man and unlocked the Blues defence.

Kavanagh found himself on the end of plenty of the fluid Crokes moves and though his inclination is generally for the posts (often in preference over a better-placed team-mate), he won three of Vaughan's five first-half frees.

It was all going to plan for Crokes until the break. Hugh McGinn was the only Blues player to score from play and they generally looked bereft of possession, inspiration and execution.

The start to the second half was pedestrian enough and nothing could have prepared the paltry crowd for the blitz which Newtown unleashed between the 44th and 54th minutes.

Judge and McGinn knocked over a couple of frees to cut the deficit to five points before midfielder Brian Kermode fielded a shot which had rebounded off the upright and blasted to the net.

Blues backs were up. Suddenly, they were finding space where it hadn't existed previously in the Crokes back-line. Their passes were hitting men on the money and McGinn, in particular, looked like he thwart Crokes ambitions.

He hit two more points from play to propel Blues into a one-point lead from a seven-point deficit just ten minutes previously.

"No matter what you say to lads, when a team gets a run on you, you may as well be trying to hold the Liffey back with your two hands. That's the way football is," observed Crokes manager Paddy Carr afterwards.

"When a team gets a run on you, it's very difficult. A lot of decisions probably went against us but I have to take my hat off to Newtown Blues.

"We were playing good football and moving the ball well.

"A couple of decisions just went the Blues' way and they got the goal at just the right time. That's the joy of football; nobody knows what's going to happen next."

What happened next was a moment of sublime intervention from Vaughan. A dull, soaked Parnell Park was looking more and more like a graveyard for Crokes' ambitions, with the Blues bench on their feet, smelling an unlikely victory.

Vaughan changed all that with as good a finish as you're likely to see in such conditions.

Jonny Magee -- much more influential now around the middle of the park -- sent a long sideline ball in the direction of Vaughan and Davoren, and the latter got their first to put the Dublin man through on goal.

Even still, Vaughan was running at full pelt, coming at the goal from the right-hand side, but with two defenders closing he did not break his stride (and boldly ignoring the percentage option with his team trailing by a point with just five minutes to go) drove the ball low and hard into the bottom left-hand corner of the Newtown goal, clipping the post on the way in.

"Mark Vaughan, at times, is a much-maligned player, but I think people saw the character of him there today," said Carr. "He takes on the big challenges. Other guys might have shirked that and gone for a point."

There wasn't time to draw breath, either. Kavanagh put over his third and fourth points of the game with two graceful strokes from difficult angles and distances.

Game over. Crokes through, but not without a serious fright.

"Our lads have had to dig deep before and they keep coming back," Carr said.

"That's a huge credit to them. We knew that second half was going to be a really tough affair. That was a tremendous second half out there.

"But it all comes down to character. And our lads have that in abundance and they dug it out."

Carr joked that his side wouldn't know what to do with themselves now with no championship game next weekend but presumably he and his management team have learned plenty in the past two turbulent weeks.

Navan will present a much more talented test in Parnell Park but all the pieces of the jigsaw are there for Carr & Co -- they just have to coax a 60-minute performance from their troops.

"I live in Navan," said Carr. "It will be a lonely place at home for the next fortnight."

- Conor McKeon