GAELIC GAMES:HARD ARE the days when you can't please anybody. At the end here yesterday, Dublin players puffed their cheeks and stared off into the distance as Wexford players slumped to the turf and suffered. Jason Ryan went around shaking every one of his players' hands and threw an arm around his tearful goalkeeper Anthony Masterson. Pat Gilroy stood impassive, Stephen Cluxton walked down to the tunnel and into the dressingroom without even waiting to see the cup lifted.

Dublin took their 50th Leinster title with a 2-12 to 1-12 victory over Wexford but we left Croke Park feeling we might all have been as well off staying in the scratcher.

“There’ll be no one tipping us to win the All-Ireland after that performance I don’t think,” said Bryan Cullen.

“I don’t think we’ve created as many chances and missed so many all year,” said Gilroy.

“Gutted. Sick of losing to them,” said Ryan. By the time they were done, you felt like ringing up Morgan Kelly for some light relief.

In truth, it wasn’t all as bad as they made out. True, Dublin’s full-forward line malfunctioned to a pretty spectacular degree, with not only the starting trio of Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard Brogan and Eoghan O’Gara replaced by the end but Mossy Quinn – who had come on for Connolly in the 26 th minute – getting the red-number treatment as well.

And yes, Wexford’s challenge faltered with the concession of a hapless own goal from their full back Graeme Molloy after Masterson came to punch a high ball clear and succeeded only in deflecting it off Molloy into the net. But for all that, we hardly got an out-and-out stinker.

Wexford shone a light in Dublin’s eyes and asked them uncomfortable questions and while their answers might not have been overly convincing, at least Gilroy’s side found them from somewhere.

The underdogs had gone from being four points down in the 25th minute to being a Redmond Barry goal up in the 44th. They’d patiently worked their way through the mean streets of Dublin’s defensive system and in Ben Brosnan had a rival for Alan Brogan in the man-of-the-match stakes. But in the end, they just couldn’t still their pulse enough to pull through in the closing 20 minutes.

The goals changed everything. If the first was a mishap, the second six minutes later made up for it in style points. James McCarthy, the rangy young Dublin wing back, collected under the Hogan Stand and sallied past Daithí Waters with a strong run that took him into the Wexford full-back line.

His shot was high into the roof of the net before Masterson could lift a hand to it and it meant an eight-point turnaround in the space of 10 minutes. With just short of 44,000 in the stadium, the force of the turning tide was impossible for Wexford to resist.

Dublin have work to do and nobody was pretending otherwise afterwards. While Alan Brogan was dynamite throughout, his younger brother had one of his worst days in Croke Park. After a stunning opening point – probably the score of the day just seconds into the game – he missed a bagful of chances for the rest of the afternoon (five wides, four balls into Masterson’s hands) and was gone by the hour mark.

“He is human,” said Gilroy. “He’s allowed to have the odd off day.” With the settling of the dust will come the realisation in Dublin that they can permit themselves similar leeway just this once. Yesterday’s display wouldn’t have beaten Cork or Kerry but then that wasn’t what yesterday called for.

They’ll have something to say about September’s business yet.