Dublin happy to get it right

Tommy Carr's side have rarely put away sides with as much conviction as they displayed at Croke Park yesterday and neither he nor his players were in any mood for having their achievement brushed aside. "It was great to see Dublin play like that," said the manager.

"It was the sort of win we've had in us for a long time," added Dessie Farrell, the player whose goal and four points went only some way towards indicating the extent of his influence on the day.

"Some people say that the draw for this round was kind to us," observed the quietly spoken Dublin captain, "but they beat Kildare who we've struggled against in recent years so we certainly weren't underestimating the task.

"At half-time there was only a point in it and there was a lot of concern at that stage, we knew it was a case or do-or-die but I had a bit of good fortune with the goal just after we went back out and sometimes something like that can set you up for the long term. We went on to win the game well and we'll take a lot of confidence from that."

From all quarters there were tributes to the big Dublin forward who noted that, over the past few seasons, there have those who have been eager enough to write him off. Yesterday, the most generous praise came from the man who insisted he had never had his doubts. "He's a footballer and a competitor," said Carr. "The harder it comes the better he likes it. He has a great attitude to the game and he is very much respected by the other players."

This win, though, had been earned with a far more convincing team performance and Carr celebrated the "anger", displayed by all of his players, part of "a backlash", that had been sparked by the disappointment of last week's terribly disappointing defeat.

"We didn't sulk for the week," he said, "we put it together again and while I know a lot of teams have struggled six or seven days after losing we didn't buy into that theory, we didn't allow ourselves to buy into it."

For the losers there was at least the consolation that the championship now offers the promise of more big days ahead. Manager Peter Ford gathered his players around him and told them to learn from the experience, go home and prepare for next year.

"It's been a good year for them even if today was disappointing. The truth is that we needed that start to the second half and they got it, up until then I thought we were in a great position."

Having beaten Kildare, Eamonn O'Hara admitted this was something of a shock, particularly the early part of the second half after which, "we were just chasing the game without being able to match them." Ford, he added, "had been stressing all along that this is a great place to win, an awful place to lose."

Within the space of a remarkable two weeks the players had learned the truth of it for themselves.