O’Shea: We had just enough to hang on

THE media scrum had to be accommodated, so Pat O’Shea improvised. The door to the warm-up area next to the Kerry dressing room was unlocked, and the Kerry boss fielded questions on the astroturf.

“It was a fantastic win for us — we knew coming up here we’d have to improve on the Monaghan match, we knew that Dublin would be a huge challenge.

“We had good patches, Dublin finished stronger, we lost Darragh O Se after 15 minutes — that would be a bolt to any team. It was hard, and the questions were asked of us at half-time: did we have the necessary hunger again, did we have that will to go out in the second half and take the game to Dublin? Overall we’re very pleased with the performance and the result.”