Dylan Quinn has etched his name into Longford GAA history, becoming only the fourth player to captain them to Leinster Minor Championship success.

The St. Vincent's (Drumlish/Ballinamuck) youngster accepted the cup from Martin Skelly, Vice-chairman of the Leinster GAA Council and a proud Longford man.

By Longford Leader

Quinn told the Leader after the game that hard work got them to Croke Park. "We knew we were good enough and it was just that we had to perform on the day. Against Offaly in the first round in April, we just didn't show up, none of us performed.

We just said we are going to turn it around from here and we're going to work. Slowly and surely we got up to another level with each game. Now we have got to the top level and we have won because of our hard work."

The Longford captain admitted though that despite beating highly fancied Kildare in the semi-final he and his team-mates were slightly apprehensive ahead of the game.

Especially after falling to a heavy defeat in their first round encounter. He said, "How could you be confident after getting a 22 point thrashing the first day against Offaly. We knew it was going to be the hardest game we have played this year and in Croke Park. We just had to focus on the game and individual battles and then after that on the team performance."

Next up for Longford is an All-Ireland Quarter –final tie against the losers of the Connacht Final between Mayo and Galway. Quinn is delighted that Longford have got that far.

Although it's going to be tough he believes Longford can cause the other teams problems. "It's good to see. We had a drought there and hopefully it has started to rain again.

When you think about it we have beaten Kildare. The Kildare manager told us they have played Cork and all the good teams and have beaten them. We know we are good enough; it's just that if we turn up on the day. The next few games are going to be the hardest. The top 8 teams in Ireland, it's going to be tough," he said.