"Curious" was the only word Waterford coach Michael Ryan was prepared to use to describe the decision by referee Finbarr O'Driscoll to play 11 minutes, 52 seconds of injury time at the end of yesterday's All-Ireland women's football final at Croke Park.

In an extraordinary climax to a thrilling game Monaghan equalised six minutes into injury time, before adding two more points, in the next six, to retain the title they won for the first time last year. Distraught Waterford players, who had staged a remarkable comeback, from nine points down at half-time, to lead Monaghan by a point after the regulation 60 minutes, were at a loss to understand why O'Driscoll had played so much added time after a half of relatively few stoppages.

"What can you do? You're sore losers if you question it. I really don't know why he went on, whether his watch stopped or something, I just don't know. Even a draw would have been fairer than this," said Waterford's Marie Crotty at full time. Indeed, few observers could understand why the second half lasted over 41 minutes. Apart from brief stoppages for cramp and minor injuries, the game was largely uninterrupted and while the Waterford players insisted on giving credit to Monaghan for their victory they were more than entitled to feel aggrieved.

Monaghan had led by 2-9 to 1-3 at half time, after their forwards capitalised on slack marking by the Waterford defence throughout the first half. Three points apiece from Diane Dempsey and captain Angela Larkin came either side of a goal from 15-year-old Edel Byrne to give the Ulster champions a commanding early lead before Geraldine O'Ryan's superbly taken goal brought Waterford back into the game.

The outstanding moment of the first half came 10 minutes before the break when Larkin fed the ball through to right half forward Niamh Kindlon who, from 20 yards out, drilled the ball high in to the top right corner of the goal to restore Monaghan's nine-point advantage.

However, the Waterford team that began the second half bore no resemblance to the struggling 15 that had ended the first. "I just said to them, `Girls, this is not a fashion show - there are too many of you just walking around out there - get moving, fight for every ball'," explained Ryan, when asked to account for the remarkable transformation in his team's second-half display.

A stunned Monaghan conceded six points in the first eight minutes, before a Dempsey score, 11 minutes into the second period, temporarily halted the Waterford revival. But the reprieve was just that - temporary. Inspired by Noreen Walsh at centre-half back, captain Martina O'Ryan in midfield and an infinitely sharper attack, Waterford added six more points without reply, with five coming from free-taker Caitriona Casey.

Byrne and Monaghan midfielder Jenny Greenan, who was beginning to stamp her mark on the game, stopped the rot with two points to level for Monaghan but, as the game entered injury time, Geraldine O'Ryan scored what looked like being the winning point.

And then it became a game of `three halves'. As the Waterford supporters in the 15,051 crowd, began celebrating the county's fifth All-Ireland title and the Monaghan contingent began making their way towards the exits, the All-Ireland champions came to life in the `third half', first equalising through Greenan's point from play, before the midfielder rounded off a superb move, started by Byrne's run from the back, with her third point of the game. Byrne ensured victory with the final score of a very long game, with a point from a free in the 42nd minute of the second half.

"We started playing the way we can play in the second half . . . but we only bargained for 30 or 35 minutes - not for 40 or 45 minutes, but that's the way it goes," said a bitterly disappointed Noreen Walsh at full time.

An ecstatic Monaghan captain Angela Larkin said she was oblivious to the amount of time added on by the referee, insisting she was too busy trying to get her team back in to the game. "It was very scary there in the last 15 minutes, but we always expect that from Waterford. We were inclined to sleep a bit in the second half, I suppose we were a bit lacadaisical, but thankfully we came through - they won the breaks in the second half, we won them in the first."

"Last year, when we won the All-Ireland for the first time against Laois, we said our dream was to beat Waterford in Croke Park, because they'd never lost here before - that was the dream. We had the guts and the determination to do it in the end. Waterford have set the benchmark for women's football the past few years, so for us to be on top we had to beat them here. We are on top now and we're champions."