ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE: Dublin 4-15 Mayo 3-13:FROM THE sublime to the ridiculous: how else do you explain seven goals, 28 points, and Dublin manager Pat Gilroy admitting his team were "lucky" to have won, after seeing their 14-point lead at one stage whittled down to zero.
Those of us in the press box trying to make sense of it could best compare with one of those All Star exhibit games, on the other side of the world, where defenders almost deliberately stand off their man, and the onslaught of goals threatens to make a mockery of the final score.
They’ll be no All Star nominations based on this game, not in defence anyway – although Diarmuid Connolly may have signalled his intentions for later in the year.
What really matters in the end is that Dublin maintain their unbeaten run through Division One – and with Down (at home) and Galway (away) to come, only a freak series of results will deny them a place in the league final for the first time since 1999. But for a while this looked like being a freak result, when Mayo, who trailed 4-4 to 0-2 after 23 minutes, managed to level the scores exactly 23 minutes later: 4-8 to 3-11.
Suddenly it felt like 2006 all over again, when Dublin famously blew a seven-point lead on Mayo to lose the All-Ireland semi-final. They had time on their side this time, and duly responded with five points without reply. Mayo never quite gave up the chase but Dublin still looked relieved at the finish – saving themselves some bright red blushes in front of the 18,960 attendance.
“Come the summer, if we went out and defended like that, we won’t be mapped,” said Gilroy, referring to Dublin’s open invitation for Mayo to rejoin the game. “It’s no big deal. We will sort it out. It’s pure laziness. That’s what it comes down to. If you don’t track people they’ll kill you. And we didn’t. It was a good lesson for us, at the right time of the year.”
For the opening 20 minutes Dublin were the ones handing Mayo a lesson: Tomás Quinn scored the first of their four goals after six minutes, perfectly set up by Paul Flynn – before Connolly claimed three in quick succession.
Flynn also provided the first, which Connolly elegantly finished; Alan Brogan set up the second, after a quick free from Flynn; and Connolly’s third was deftly finished with the fist after a high ball completed deceived the Mayo defence. With that Dublin were 14 points up and the contest it seemed was as good as over.
“We probably caught them on the hop a little,” explained Tomás Quinn. “It’s our third game in Croke Park, and it does take a bit of getting used to. By the time they got to the pitch we’d a couple of goals. But we didn’t panic, when they drew level. But we’d much rather have scored four goals and not conceded any.”
Mayo’s comeback began with five points without reply, two of the best from Alan Freeman, before Jason Doherty took advantage of the slack Dublin defence to drill home their first goal. Even though Mayo tagged on two more points, Dublin still looked out of sight at the break, 4-8 to 1-9.
But no – with Dublin’s defence either day dreaming or simply fast asleep, Doherty and Freeman both helped themselves to a goal, and with that the sides were level. Freeman had clearly found the legs on Seán Murray, although Dublin’s problems stemmed from further out the field. Gilroy made some prompt changes, with Bryan Cullen introducing a steadying effect, and Connolly moving in for a couple more terrific points, Dublin were cruising again, hitting the next five points without reply.
“You’d have to be happy with the overall score,” added Gilroy, “and the finishing was clinical at times. But the other stuff was awful. It was lack of effort, lack of work rate. We let them come on to us, and we got our answer. We’re lucky to have won, after being 14 points up. We know the area we need to work on, Defending. It’s from right out the field. It just wasn’t good enough. Conceding scores like that. It was more like a hurling match. I would have been really disgusted if we had lost.”
Hitting 4-15 is certainly encouraging – especially given Bernard Brogan’s enforced absence in the USA. Barry Cahill also admitted Dublin’s work rate effectively disintegrated for a while, and that it was a “strange” game, but that they “showed the character to go the few points clear again”.
Mayo manager James Horan, like the rest of us, struggled to make sense of it: “The complete mixed bag,” he said. “A rollercoaster, I suppose, is the word. It would have been very easy to let the head go down, and wait for the whistle to go.
“But they kept at it, with a lot of positives to work on. But the defending was poor. We know that. We have so much to work on. But right now it seems like one step forward, two steps back.”
DUBLIN:M Savage; D Daly, S Murray, P Brogan; P Casey, G Brennan, D Nelson (0-1); D Bastick, M D MacAuley (0-1); P Flynn, K McManamon (0-2), B Cahill; T Quinn (1-7, seven frees), D Connolly (3-3), A Brogan (0-1). Subs: P McMahon for Daly (half time), B Cullen for MacAuley (42 mins), K Nolan for Casey (47 mins), P Andrews for Flynn (61 mins), P Burke for Brogan (68 mins).
MAYO:R Hennelly; T Cunniffe, C Barrett, K Higgins; R Feeney (0-2), G Cafferkey, K McLoughlin; R McGarrity, T Parsons; A Cambell (0-3, two frees), A Dillon (0-2, two frees), A Moran (0-2); P Gardiner (0-1), A Freeman (1-3), J Doherty (2-0). Subs: J Kilcullen for Parsons (42 mins), A Kilcoyne for Cambell (54 mins), C Hallinan for Cafferkey (57 mins), J Burke (65 mins).
Referee:M Deegan (Laois).
