NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE:IN RECENT years Dublin have come to be wary of jumping to conclusions about half-full glasses. In fact it's probably fair to say that if the Dubs' glass isn't full, it's empty.

Setting aside, however, the all-too familiar shedding of what should have been a winning lead, there were a few things to encourage the home manager Pat Gilroy after yesterday’s exciting draw as Kerry outscored the hosts 1-2 to no score in the last 10 minutes of yesterday’s encounter at Parnell Park.

The ability of the team to compete against Kerry in terms of work-rate and physical presence was impressive – as hardened a wing back raider as Tomás Ó Sé classed Dublin’s attack as the hardest tackling forwards Kerry had encountered this season – although willing athleticism hasn’t been one of the deficiencies of the last few seasons.

There was also the introduction of the Kilmacud players after their All-Ireland club success of two weeks ago. All three made a contribution. Paul Griffin looked more at ease in the half backs sweeping up loose ball and setting up the counter movements.

Darren Magee made a big impression at centrefield along with Ross McConnell until the effort began to flag in the final quarter as Kerry made changes and the Dublin unit began to tire with McConnell eventually having to retire injured.

Up front Mark Davoren managed to replicate his scoring feats in the club championship, hitting 1-3, which but for a miscued side-foot would have been 2-2.

Then there was the full-back line, into the reconstruction of which much effort has been invested. Denis Bastic coped well with the high ball played into Kieran Donaghy (who was at centrefield for the throw-ins at the start of either half), getting in the way and breaking what he could, and towards the end he took a great catch.

Unfortunately the one ball under which Donaghy wasn’t dealt with ended up with Aidan O’Mahony hurtling in to touch the ball to the net for the score that underwrote the Kerry comeback.

Beside Bastic, David Henry and Alan Hubbard more than managed to earn their keep defensively and still got forward on attacking runs – Henry kicking a fine point on one such excursion.

“We probably should have won the game but ran out of steam a bit in the last 10 minutes,” said Gilroy. “It was disappointing to give away the goal as we had defended those high balls very well all day. We’re very happy with the way we played; the lads worked very hard.

“It went very well. When Ross went off we struggled after that. It was hard to win the ball and that caught us in the last 10 minutes. I thought they gave us a great platform for 45 minutes.

“Mark Davoren played very well but that’s what he’s been doing all through the All-Ireland club and what we were hoping he’d do for us.

“We’re nearly there. Having the lads back from Kilmacud helps us to start putting a proper shape on it. It’s going to be difficult to pick a championship team, which is a good thing but what I think is important is that the guys are getting the way we want to play. The way we want to play we’re probably going to have to play 21 guys or 20 guys – depending what the rules are in the summer.” Twice Dublin led by six in the third quarter having started the second half with Davoren getting on the end of a pass from Magee, who was on a break forward. The first half had proceeded evenly on a pitch so firm that the pace and hard running of the game caused hamstring problems on either side.

Good place-kicking from Conal Keaney and Diarmuid Connolly helped Dublin to a two-point lead at the break, 0-9 to 0-7. Davoren contributed two, including the rebound from the energetic Paddy Andrews’ shot that he put over the bar of an empty goal.

Kerry manager Jack O’Connor, whose team had qualified for the final as soon as Derry had lost on Saturday night, made the necessary running repairs as a first defeat loomed on the horizon, throwing in Anthony Maher and Micheál Quirke as a replacement centrefield unit and that helped them regain the initiative.

With a better supply, blue-chip forwards like Colm Cooper, Donaghy and Tommy Walsh began to make their presence felt and it was a ball from Cooper into Donaghy that enabled the latter to tie up the match.

In injury-time Alan Brogan, in as a replacement, conjured up a fine attempt from the right wing that looked over but came off the post and back on the wrong side. Kerry also failed to make late chances count.

“Overall the Dubs definitely deserved a point out of it,” said O’Connor, who conceded that the Derry result might have had an impact. “Maybe psychologically fellas weren’t as motivated going into the game but they certainly were motivated when they went behind, which is a great sign of them because Kerry never like getting beaten by the Dubs.

“We’re going to do a bit of heavy training in the next few weeks because we’ve only been doing one night a week as well (as Dublin). We need to get in a block of training somewhere. We’ll probably train through the next game and see where that takes us.”

For Dublin, the imperative is to beat Westmeath in the last match in a fortnight’s time and hope that other results go their way. But without yesterday’s performance avoiding relegation to Division Two would have been an even harder task.

KERRY: D Murphy; P Reidy, A O’Shea, T O’Sullivan; T Ó Sé (0-1), A O’Mahony (1-0), T Griffin; S Scanlon, K Donaghy (0-1); P Galvin (0-1), D Moran (0-2), D O’Sullivan (capt, 0-2); C Cooper (0-3, one free), T Walsh (0-2), B Sheehan (0-2, one free). Subs: D Bohane for O’Shea (20 mins), K Quirke for Reidy (35 mins), A Maher for Sheehan (half-time), M Quirke for Scanlon (41 mins), S O’Sullivan (0-1, free) for Moran (48 mins), K O’Leary for D O’Sullivan (66 mins).

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; D Henry (0-1), D Bastic, A Hubbard; B Cullen, P Griffin, G Brennan; D Magee, R McConnell (0-2); P Flynn, K Bonner, D Connolly (0-4, three frees); C Keaney (0-2, frees), M Davoren (1-3), P Andrews (0-2). Subs: P Burke (0-1) for Bonner, A Brogan for McConnell (58 mins), S Ryan for Flynn (61 mins), D Lally for Connolly (67 mins), R O’Carroll for Henry (69 mins).

Referee: P McEnaney (Monaghan).