Stylish Dublin get ball rolling for new boss Caffrey

Dublin 2-13 Mayo 1-15

Three goals, 18 points, tons of free-flowing football, a penalty save from none other than Paddy Christie after Stephen Cluxton's early exit and a last-gasp winner for the home team. This had it all.

Let's not read too much into it though. It is only February. It was against a team heavily hamstrung by injury and Dublin still have a horrible habit of disappearing from a game for vast periods.

Twice the Dubs racked up comforting leads against the All-Ireland finalists and twice the visitors hauled themselves back into the game. As always, pulling the strings for John Maughan's men was the incomparable Ciaran McDonald.

The man is simply unique and on Saturday he treated the sell-out crowd to his full repertoire of talents, firing over no less than three of his five points from distance with the outside of his left peg. Sublime.

It was McDonald who set up his side's goal with a perfectly weighted high ball into the Dublin area that begged for a finish that duly came courtesy of Alan Costello's fist with six minutes to play.

By the 70th minute the sides were deadlocked before Tomas Quinn fired over the match-winning 45. Rough justice on Mayo in a game that neither side deserved to lose, a fact Paul Caffrey accepted afterwards.

"2-13 is a very high score for the first week in February. We came back into it very well but we're under no illusions that we could have lost this just as easily.

"There were a lot of positives but it's only one small step in the right direction, it's only a start. What we need to do now is put back-to-back wins together. That hasn't happened in Dublin for a while. The focus now has to be on Tyrone and beating them in Omagh."

Dublin will have to do that without Alan Brogan who suffered a leg injury soon after entering the game as a substitute.

Of more long-term importance will be Quinn's performance as chief free-taker, a role he has played with only limited success this past two years.

For Caffrey's counterpart, that late score was the cruellest of blows but the defeat could not mask what was a confidence-boosting performance from a side that has had to endure four months of uncomfortable introspection.

"I'm pleased with the character shown by the younger guys," said Maughan. "It was important to get a performance because we didn't perform the last time we had a competitive game and that left a bitter taste. I'm proud of the spirit and resilience shown by the young lads in front of a big crowd in Dublin's back yard."

That the game was so easy on the eye was put down by many to the new rules which seems to have eradicated off-the-ball nonsense almost overnight.

"There were a couple of decisions there towards the end that I was annoyed over but you'll have that," said Maughan. "The new rules certainly make for a more flee-flowing game. I'm all for change and you could see that it was a lot faster and made for a greater spectacle."

SCORERS Dublin: T Quinn 2-2 (0-1 '45'), C Whelan, S Connell 0-2 each, P Andrews, D Henry, R Boyle, D O'Callaghan, A Brogan, S Ryan, B Cullen 0-1 each. Mayo: C McDonald 0-5 (0-1f, 0-1 pen, 0-1 sline), C Mortimer 0-4 (0-1f), A Costello 1-0, J Prenty 0-2, J Gill, A Moran, D Munnelly, P Kelly 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Griffin, P Christie, S O'Shaughnessy; P Casey, B Cullen, P Andrews; C Whelan, S Ryan; D Henry, J Sherlock, S Connell; D O'Callaghan, R Boyle, T Quinn. Subs: B Murphy for Cluxton, A Brogan for Boyle, R Cosgrove for Brogan, D Lally for Henry. Yellow card: S Cluxton

MAYO: F Ruddy; P Kelly, D Heaney, L O'Malley; G Mullins, J Nallen, P Gardiner; J Gill, J Kilcullen; A Moran, C McDonald, A Kilcoyne; C Mortimer, D Munnelly, J Prenty. Subs: K Higgins for Heaney, C Moran for Mullins, BJ Padden for Munnelly, A Costello for A Moran. Yellow card: A Costello.

Referee: P Russell (Tipperary).