Championship 2005: Dublin 1-14, Tyrone 1-14 What a set-to. Dublin came to Croke Park on Saturday knowing the Leinster title hasn't been an access-all-areas pass at football's top level for a while.

Nerves and at times self-doubt jangling, they outperformed their previous best and rattled one of the contemporary game's elite sides before Tyrone showed why exactly they are in that category.

It may be a cliche but neither side deserved to lose and there's no more succinct opinion on the drawn outcome.

Croke Park was all but full - 78,514 turned up - for the match of the season to date, a fitting detail of an enthralling afternoon. Both sides will be harbouring mixed feelings after riding the roller-coaster but Dublin's relief was greater and so commensurately was Tyrone's disappointment.

Saturday's draw means the Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football quarter-final goes to a replay on the weekend after next, August 27th.

For once, excitement didn't come at the expense of quality. Dublin's first-half display was their best football so far even if the merited five-point lead came courtesy of a late goal just before half-time.

But the Ulster finalists hit back with a top-gear performance of their own in the second half, immobilising their opponents and establishing a position that should never have been overhauled.

As well as the skill there was physical commitment, comebacks from dire situations, some glorious scores and an extraordinary goal in the second half that revolutionised Tyrone's fortunes.

But let's start with how the match looked in prospect. Dublin would have to tether Stephen O'Neill, whose Footballer of the Year credentials had to - and did - survive an off day. The Leinster champions would have to score more and at least be in touch when the stewards moved into end-of-match positions. Paul Caffrey was able to tick all those boxes.

O'Neill helped by being more wayward than we have recently come to expect but at least a couple of his inaccuracies were a tribute to Paul Griffin's tight marking. Yet the Tyrone full forward still hit six points, three from play, to go with eight wides - 14 scoring chances in other words.

Up front Dublin managed by half-time to equal many fair estimates of their likely total over 70 minutes and, despite a drastic falling away in the second half, they were never more than two points behind as the clock ticked down.

After Tyrone had foolishly talked forward a free to within comfortable distance - whatever that is when you're a point down with one kick left - yet again it was left to Tomás Quinn to save the day. Facing into the hungry thousands on the Hill, he set aside earlier failures to nail the draw.

In the initial stages, however, Tyrone opened as if they were going to destroy Dublin. It took O'Neill little over a minute to slot the first score and convince Caffrey that his opening gambit of leaving Paddy Christie on the Tyrone hotshot had run its course and he should switch in Griffin.

Groggy under the pressure, Dublin groped their way back to 0-2 apiece and after Seán Cavanagh had restored the Ulster side's lead, the match turned blue. A run of five points put Dublin in charge. Their forwards looked sharp with Jason Sherlock a lively menace, shooting on sight and not missing for his two points.

Ciarán Whelan was also at this stage firmly in the zone and took breathtaking catches at centrefield, particularly on the Tyrone restarts. By half-time team selector Fr Gerard McAleer was lamenting that his side hadn't won 50 per cent of their own kick-outs.

Yet Tyrone weren't being put away and despite their difficulty in winning primary possession and their unusually tentative performance on the breaks as well as some howling inaccuracies, they were picking off enough scores to stay on Dublin's shoulder.

With a minute to go of ordinary time there was only a point in it. Quinn then added a free and, in an injury-time flourish, grabbed a sensational goal.

There was some grumbling at the interval that referee Aidan Mangan had played more than the announced two minutes but to be fair to the Kerry official, Dublin wove an intricate movement of 13 passes to get a shot on goal from Sherlock, whose brave intervention along the way had kept the ball alive.

It was Collie Moran who made the deepest incision with a penetrating solo assault on Tyrone's goal and a precise hand pass into Sherlock. Pascal McConnell saved, only for Quinn to ram home the rebound and give Dublin the sort of cushion, 1-10 to 0-8, their control had warranted.

Mickey Harte made effective changes at the break. He set about dismantling Whelan's influence by bringing in Joe McMahon, a player normally used in defence but, in the view of some in the county, primarily a centrefielder. McMahon at least competed in the air and broke a couple of early balls away from the Dubliner, whose influence quickly waned.

Enda McGinley, who had been working as hard as ever in the first half, assumed a central role at centrefield in the second half and was the major influence on his team's new assertiveness in the area.

Another important switch was the restoration of Conor Gormley to the defence. His display at centre back on Alan Brogan greatly restricted the damaging runs Dublin so rely on to create openings.

With their game suitably tightened, Tyrone went on the rampage. They suddenly looked too quick for their opponents, who began to get caught on the ball and give away priceless possession.

The apparent hammer blow fell on Dublin in the 50th minute. Peter Canavan had just come on and whatever about his own contribution the great man's presence just seems to galvanise his former pupil Owen Mulligan.

After Dublin had again gifted the ball through a bad clearance, Mulligan ran at the defence. Christie slipped at the start but the Tyrone forward still had to sell two outrageous dummies to Stephen O'Shaughnessy and Paul Casey before thundering a shot past Stephen Cluxton. It was uncannily similar to the goal Mulligan scored in the NFL match between the counties in Omagh six months to the day previously.

Like last year when O'Neill's goal squared the quarter-final against Mayo only for the team to fall away again, Tyrone's threatened ascendancy never quite materialised.

Canavan hit the bar with a fisted shot and unleashed O'Neill for his worst wide with a deft ball into space that left the latter one-on-one with Cluxton.

Dublin were in free-fall, their scoring threat withered by a lack of serviceable possession and fatal hesitations that left the forward in possession surrounded by a trademark gang of markers.

Bryan Cullen had recovered from an anonymous first half to play a storming fire-brigade role. No more than his colleagues, he wasn't entirely free of error but he was the only Dublin player to raise his game at this period.

With two fantastic points from Brian Dooher and O'Neill, Tyrone pulled two clear in the 66th minute, 1-14 to 1-12 - within range but against a team that had managed only two points since half-time. A goal chance for Quinn and then Whelan had been defused by Chris Lawn and Ryan McMenamin and time was running out for Dublin.

Quinn got the yips with a 45 and a narrow-angle free and it looked as if Tyrone could afford some crazily profligate shooting from O'Neill and McMahon.

But for the third time in four big Croke Park outings Mickey Harte's team failed to slam down the shutters.

Dooher lost the ball and the resulting attack was finished bravely by Quinn to narrow the margin to one in injury-time.

The Hill clamoured for one more chance of deliverance and with the seconds evaporating it duly arrived.

DUBLIN: 1. S Cluxton; 2. P Griffin, 3. P Christie, 4. S O'Shaughnessy; 7. C Goggins, 6. B Cahill, 5. P Casey; 8. C Whelan, 9. S Ryan; 10. C Moran, 11. A Brogan (0-2), 12. B Cullen; 13. J Sherlock (0-2), 14. C Keaney (0-3, one free), 15. T Quinn (1-7, five points frees and one 45). Subs: 17. P Andrews for Christie (55 mins), 19. S Connell for Moran (62 mins), 18. D Homan for Goggins (66 mins), 23. D Magee for Whelan (70 mins), 26. D Farrell for Brogan (73 mins).

Yellow cards: Griffin (34 mins), Farrell (75 mins).

TYRONE: 1. P McConnell; 2. R McMenamin, 3. C Lawn, 4. S Sweeney; 5. D Harte, 6. G Devlin, 7. P Jordan; 8. C Gormley, 9. S Cavanagh (0-3); 10. B Dooher (0-1), 11. B McGuigan (0-1), 12. O Mulligan (1-1, point a free); 13. R Mellon (0-1), 14. S O'Neill (0-6, three frees), 15. E McGinley (0-1). Subs: 23. J McMahon for Devlin (half-time), 18. P Canavan for Mellon (49 mins), 22. M McGee for Harte (73 mins).

Yellow cards: McMenamin (50 mins), Mulligan (73 mins).

Referee: A Mangan (Kerry).