Aidan O’Rourke was well entitled to the self-confidence that fairly radiated off him as he stood in the tunnel under the O’Moore Park stand. The performance of his Louth side said only good things about the work he’s done since taking charge last winter. For one thing, they played for each other – a trait not always noticeable in Louth teams. For another, they played smart and to a perfectly discernible plan. It was far too much for a disjointed Laois team.

“They’re a very talented group of players but sometimes they don’t realise how talented they are,” said O’Rourke.

“There maybe is a poor-relation mentality with the group at times whenever they come up against bigger teams and bigger opposition. Laois are pretty big opposition and are considered one of the better teams in Leinster at the minute. So that performance should help them in that regard.

“Wexford are probably the best possible opposition for us next because we’re probably fresh from having our fingers burnt by Wexford in the league. I definitely think we can beat Wexford and we’re capable of beating anyone in Leinster on our day. But there’s so many variables to that in terms of us getting a performance and getting our heads right so anybody is capable of beating us, there’s no doubt about that. But we’re also capable of beating anyone.”

As for his erstwhile playing colleague in the far dressing room, Justin McNulty couldn’t get his head around what had just happened. His team had been blown away even though as far as he was concerned, preparations had gone to plan.

“Shocked, shocked, absolutely shocked,” he said. “We came here today expecting to deliver a big performance and we certainly didn’t get that from the first minute to the final minute. We didn’t seem to have any fight throughout. Louth were tactically better, hungrier than us and fully deserved their victory.

“If I knew why I would say. It is one of these things in sport, there are anomalies along the way. Today was a day when we felt we were in good place, we felt we were ready for action, we felt we were ready for the fray. Then the ball was thrown in and it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen for so many players.

“We fell behind and they had a defensive system in place which we couldn’t bring down. We were chasing the game and we couldn’t claw it back.

“In terms of the tactical battle Louth were superior. No question about it. They were superior in several aspects of the performance, not just tactically. Louth fully deserved their victory.”