In the north west they wear the haggard, seen-it-all faces of the men they couldn't hang. For the second time in a weekend the noose was left empty and dangling at Croke Park. The only sound to be heard were those of galloping hooves retreating and cash machines clanging. Tom Humphries reports from Croke Park

You just knew there was going to be something odd wrapped up in this holiday weekend when the sun started shining so freakishly on Sunday afternoon. Small children pointed at the orange ball in the sky and asked what it was. Then Sligo slipped free of the rope with a storming finish against Armagh. Strange times. Since when did Sligo have a team that actually performs better in Croke Park than anywhere else? Then yesterday it happened again. The gallows trap-door opened and nothing fell through.

Donegal, three points down with five minutes left, rattled over three scores in quick succession. Everyone lived to fight another day, except Mayo. Informed speculation was that residents in the Croke Park area will be buttered up like so many pieces of toast all day today and there will be a double header at headquarters on Saturday, August 17th.

If Croke Park is paying its way in terms of the number of 70,000-plus crowds it is accommodating this summer it must be said the windfall is deserved. The place looked stunningly beautiful all weekend and the noise generated by a full house makes a trip there an occasion in itself. And after what seemed like five years of solid rain the pitch was as immaculate yesterday at the end of the fourth All-Ireland championship quarter-final match of the weekend as it had been at the start.

The football stood up too. Just about. The games this weekend were error ridden but the two draws were thrillers.

Cork beat Mayo in the dud encounter of the weekend and Kerry beat Galway in a sprightly game on Sunday. Sligo found their confidence late in the day against Armagh but could have stolen the game with a little luck.

So to yesterday's main event. Dublin and Donegal meeting for the first time in championship football since their clash in the final of 10 years ago. Dublin were a little more wary this time. No modelling assignments were undertaken late in the week. Donegal were a little more confident. They know now that Donegal teams can come to Croke Park and win.

There was more to the story than that, of course. Dublin (and the media) were without their totem, their manager, their quotes machine Tommy Lyons. Tommy took ill on Saturday night with a stomach complaint (watching Dublin practise their frees no doubt) and watched the game from a bed in Blackrock Clinic.

He was missed not just for the colour he brings to the big occasion but for the confidence he transfuses into his young Dublin team playing into their beloved Hill. It began edgily yesterday. Ten minutes of stuttering football produced no scores and two debilitating injuries, Barry Monaghan of Donegal and Paul Casey of Dublin both having to be carried off.

Thirteen minutes in the first score arrived from Dublin's Shane Ryan and immediately Donegal decided it was time to play ball. For the first, but not the last time, in the game they stitched together three quick points without reply.

The sides would be level another eight times after a Brendan Devenney free cancelled out Ryan's opener. The lead changed hands seven times.

Dublin, as is their habit at Croke Park this season, scored two goals, both of them well taken scores by Ray Cosgrove who has now registered 5-10 in three championship outings at headquarters this summer. There may be an inquiry as to how this capability was kept hidden from previous administrations.

If Cosgrove harbours any regrets this morning about his fine performance it will be that Donegal seemed capable of stepping right up and replying fluently to each goal he got. He scored his first in the 17th minute and Senan Connell immediately tacked a point on. Then between the 19th and 24th minutes Donegal hammered three points over. Same again at the business end of the match. Cosgrove wraps up the Dublin scoring with a well taken goal following a fine pass from Jason Sherlock. Donegal just pounded out another three uninterrupted scores.

For Donegal, their best hope for the replay resides in the fact that yesterday they looked like a team which was always about to score a goal but didn't. Devenney and Adrian Sweeney both strung together patches where they tormented the Dublin defence, while the Donegal half-forward line found themselves able to run at Dublin with relative impunity.

Dublin will worry about their free-taking in particular. They have apparently been using a kicking guru. Perhaps it's time to pick him if he's so smart. Two of the wonder boys of Dublin's summer, Alan Brogan and John McNally, had relatively quiet games yesterday and it was the introduction of old salts Dessie Farrell and Sherlock (the latter especially) which moved things Dublin's way at the end. Sherlock hit one bad wide and fisted another ball down onto the goalie's head but generally his passing and positional play were wonderful.

Afterwards, both sides mopped their brows and expressed some pleasure at having got away with it.

Mickey Moran, Donegal's manager, noted in the venerable tradition of GAA men that all the media hype surrounding Dublin had inspired his side. "We used that to great effect. The pressure was going to be on Dublin, they are Leinster champions. That's what the championship is all about. We responded with great character. We'll have to fight another day now There's a lot of things we have to work on."

The Dublin dressing-room was less talkative. Paul "Pilar" Caffrey, one of the vice-presidents in the Lyons administration, had been selected to assume executive control. He didn't have access to Tommy's speechwriter, however, and the references to such exotic practices as "arseboxing" were sorely missed. Pilar had problems of his own anyway.

"We're meant to be flying to Spain in the morning for our holidays," he said, waving a hand at his wife and children standing nearby wearing sombreros and carrying buckets and spades. "So there's a few not happy."

And Tommy Lyons, any word from Blackrock? "Tommy? Well John Costello made a statement. He's in hospital with a stomach complaint. We hoped we'd put a smile on his face today but sadly it wasn't to be. I'll be ringing him soon."

And he went off to consult with the oracle himself.