ARMY captain Dermot Earley was part of a Lilywhite version of the German army's blitzkrieg tactics as Kildare devastated Laois at Tullamore on Saturday night.

The Lilies now look forward to their first Leinster final since 2003, and will be hell-bent on winning the provincial championship for the first time in nine years.

But Earley (30) warns against Kildare getting caught up in the hype that the followers of this football-mad county will generate in the coming weeks.

"We're delighted with the win but the county probably goes a bit crazy at times like this because they're so starved of success.

"We went for a period when we were playing in Leinster finals and we were playing in an All-Ireland final and semi-finals and stuff like that but it hasn't happened for a while.

"You can see that the Kildare fans are very passionate but it's very important for us that we distance ourselves from that, and that we don't get caught up in the rollercoaster ride of it all," he said.

Earley knows how it can be for younger players when the success follows success but he's older and wiser now.

"Personally, when I was younger I might have got caught up in it.

"But at the time Kildare played in a Leinster final, All-Ireland final, another Leinster final, All-Ireland semi-final, another two Leinster finals.

"I thought this was the way it was going to happen every year but it's six years ago since we were in a Leinster final.

Unstoppable

"The main thing from tonight is that we're back there again but we know we still have a huge amount of work to do," he said.

Earley and his team-mates were unstoppable once they found their momentum and inspiration from a ninth-minute goal by Alan Smith.

For much of those early stages of the game Laois had looked the stronger, more aggressive side and had notched up four points scored by Donie Kingston, Billy Sheehan, and two by MJ Tierney.

Kildare were gasping for air for a while as they struggled to cope with the vibrant Laois attack.

Their one reply came from Mikey Conway, who sallied forward from his left wing-back position to score a point.

But slowly, the trend of play changed over the next five minutes.

Kildare got their second wind, they began gaining some leverage in midfield from the efforts of Earley and Daryl Flynn, and most noticeably, from the momentum provided by Conway along the left flank.

Conway raided forward again in the ninth minute, and just passed the ball on before he was taken out by John O'Loughlin of Laois.

Ref Dave Coldrick spotted the hit but allowed advantage as Morgan O'Flaherty raided into the Laois danger area and passed to Alan Smith, who slotted home his third goal in three successive games.

Afterwards Coldrick went back and booked O'Loughlin. Good decision all round. Conway recovered, and went on to have an excellent game.

He was arguably on the ball more often than any other Kildare player. He went on to assist in Kildare's second goal scored by James Kavanagh after 40 minutes and for good measure, dived to block a goal-bound shot by Ross Munnelly in the second half.

The statistics of Kildare's showing in the last 25 minutes of the first half will make chilling reading for future opposition.

Restricted

They restricted Laois to only two more points -- one by Padraig Clancy and the other from a free by Kingston -- and scored nine points without reply from the 18th to the 36th minute.

All their forwards scored from play and the Lillies defenders did their job in fine style. Laois had no wides in the first half, which is testimony not to their accuracy but to the quality of Kildare's backline performance.

Corner-forward Johnny Doyle was lively and dangerous every time he got the ball and scored seven points, six of them from frees.

Kildare were strong right up the spine of the side, from full-back Michael Foley, through Brian Flanagan at centre-back, Flynn and Earley in midfield, Padraig O'Neill at centre-forward and Eamonn Callaghan at full-forward.

Manager Kieran McGeeney can be pleased with the work-rate and the pace at which his players operated.

They swung the ball from side to side with accurate diagonal passes which allowed Doyle and Smith in the corners to vary the pressure on the Laois back line, and with Conway eager to join in on the left side Kildare had plenty of attacking options.

McGeeney still demands more. When it was put to him that this must have been the best Kildare performance under his stewardship, he shrugged off the praise.

"We got off to a slow start. Laois were coming at us which we knew they would. They're big and strong around the middle and after the first few minutes we got the goal which was slightly against the run of play.

"Alan took it well and we moved on from there. The happiest thing for me was that even when they went ahead, the lads kept working.

"We got on a roll. We were ruthless and we pushed on, which was encouraging.

"The thing about it is when you get your chances you have to take them and the good teams do that.

"For us to try and compete with some of those teams, that's what we have to do. It's encouraging that we did that today," he said.

The key move of the second half was the passing combination which brought the second Kildare goal to effectively kill off the game as a contest.

It came just two minutes after the re-start, and again Conway started it, before passing to Callaghan, who moved the ball across the Laois goal for Kavanagh to score.

Laois manager Sean Dempsey emptied the bench in the second period but knew that his side could not haul their way back into the game.

"Very disappointed with the performance and the number of times we lost the ball in the tackle. We're better than that and we've shown that in other games, but you have to have a level of consistency and we didn't have that tonight," he said.

Scorers -- Kildare: J Doyle 0-7 (6f); J Kavanagh 1-2; A Smith 1-0; R Sweeney 0-3; E O'Callaghan 0-2; P O'Neill 0-2; D Earley, M Conway 0-1 each. Laois: D Kingston 0-3 (3f); MJ Tierney 0-3 (2f, 45); B Sheehan, P Clancy, G Reddin 0-1 each.

Kildare -- T Corley 7; H McGrillen 7, M Foley 7, M O'Flaherty 7; E Bolton 7, B Flanagan 7, M Conway 9; D Flynn 7, D Earley 8; J Kavanagh 8, P O'Neill 7, R Sweeney 8; A Smith 8, E Callaghan 7, J Doyle 8. Subs: K Ennis 7 for Smith (59) K O'Neill 7 for McGrillen (60), G Whyte for Conway (65), A Rainbow for O'Flaherty (66).

Laois -- M Nolan 6; C Ryan 6, M Timmons 6, R Stapleton 6; D Rooney 6, G Reddin 6, J O'Loughlin 5; P Clancy 6, K Meaney 6; B Quigley 5, B McCormack 6, B Sheehan 5; MJ Tierney 6, R Munnelly 6, D Kingston 5. Subs: J Higgins 5 for B Sheehan (43), C Coss 5 for D Kingston (48), A Fennelly 5 for R Stapleton (58), C Rodgers 5 for B McCormack (54).

Ref -- D Coldrick (Meath).

- Liam Kelly