John Courtney didn't immediately become aware of the error that would save his year. As he left the field in Pβirc Tailteann, Navan, his team Sarsfields had under-performed its way out of the Leinster championship and the manager was going in to deliver the season's peroration.

What he didn't know was that Na Fianna had committed an epic blunder. In a week during which the OECD would reveal maths as the weak point in the Irish educational system, the Dublin champions had got confused counting to five. The illicit sixth substitute unwittingly introduced in injury time was punishable in the Official Guide by automatic forfeiture of the match.

"When I came back into the dressing-room, people wanted me to go out and discuss something," says Courtney. "I didn't want to because I felt I should talk to my players and console them after what had happened. I asked the chairman (Brendan Ryan) to go out instead. When we were finished, local reporters came in and said that there seemed to be a problem, that the referee might have six slips. I said, 'well what does that mean?'.

"We went down to the same place as the Na Fianna lads. I was talking with Mick Galvin and one of our fellas who's a referee got a rule book and quoted the rule. It became apparent that this was an infringement. I warned the lads that something might be happening but that it was out of our hands and not to get involved in discussing it."

The Leinster Council didn't particularly want to administer the letter of the law. The obvious compromise of a refixture seemed to satisfy everyone. Na Fianna were eyeballing a tragic-comic expulsion. Their Kildare opponents had been trimmed by nine points and would have needed hard necks to insist on being handed the match. Nor did Sarsfields consider such a move, according to Courtney.

"I spoke to Mick Galvin on the Monday morning. He said: "It appears we're gone." He'd been talking to one of Dublin's Leinster Council delegates and he'd said that it didn't look good. Mick Galvin said that he felt the best they'd do was to be offered a replay. I told him that if we could help it, there'd be no one thrown out. The club were in touch with me and asked was it my recommendation that we have a replay. I said, 'yes'.

"Monday was going to be our end-of-year drinks anyway. The lads were in superb form as soon as the news came through. Absolutely delighted. They had one drink and put it down after that."

Even in the context of Courtney's eventful football career, this is a novel deliverance. A panellist with his native Cork over 20 years ago, at a time when the county ruefully thought of itself as the second best in the country, he never quite made the breakthrough - "Panels were smaller then and you would be cut coming into the championship," he remembers.

But as a budding Army officer based in Kildare, he was pulled away from home and his club career with Glanworth in north Cork. Gradually his focus switched to Sarsfields in Newbridge.

Successful in a number of Leinster counties - Wicklow, Offaly and Carlow - this is his second stint in charge of his adopted club. In the first tour of duty, he managed the side that became the only Leinster conquerors of ╔ire ╙g during the Carlow club's 1990s domination of the province.

Ironically he took over at ╔ire ╙g in 1996 - "I arrived on the day of their first county championship game," he says - and led them to one of their five Leinster titles.

They set a standard for the province, something he saw at first hand. "╔ire ╙g were class," he says. "I came in just after Bobby Miller had got them to two All-Ireland finals and all they needed was a new face to generate enthusiasm again. They were only beaten once in seven years in Leinster and that was by Sarsfields.

"Their advantages were that they were all mature footballers, fresh because they hadn't any hard matches really because there wasn't much competition in Carlow until O'Hanrahan's came along. They got the hang of the Leinster championship and had their minds set on it. They were good at planning for it."

At the time he admitted to feeling the pressure of having to deliver a provincial title to fend off the charge of failure. His work also complicated matters. An Army commandant, he served in the Lebanon between 1995 and '96, a time when the problems of the region made the posting "very hard".

Three years later, after ╔ire ╙g, he did duty in Sarajevo as chief procurement officer for the elections being held in Bosnia at the time. Essentially on a civilian posting, Courtney enjoyed the experience more than he had the Middle East.

It was always on the cards that he'd return to take up Sarsfields again. He is pleased with the current side and sees improvement since the days Sarsfields were last in his care. "This is a better team. They have a lot more work-rate and maturity. Good lads are also coming on."

One good lad who hasn't come on for the current epic Leinster campaign - which included the dethroning of champions O'Hanrahan's - is former All Star and Ireland international Niall Buckley, at present in Chicago nursing a hamstring injury. Within the club, there is surprisingly little resentment over Buckley's absence despite the high stakes.

"There'd be no resentment," says Courtney. "You have to know him, how popular he is in the club and the circumstances. He has interests in Chicago and a lot of friends there. He agreed to help us win the county and he did. When he's here he's no trouble, does what you ask him to do and the lads like him. But maybe when he's not here other lads express themselves that bit more."

The tone is optimistic; making the best out of what he has available. But that's something John Courtney is good at.