Cullen and Gilroy eager to move on

"The season begins now" was Bryan Cullen's parting shot after he collected the Delaney Cup on Dublin's behalf yesterday afternoon.

The Dubs captain agreed that his team had put in "a patchy performance" on the way to winning the capital's 50th Leinster SFC title.

Two second half goals, one of them an own goal from unfortunate Wexford defender Graeme Molloy, helped Pat Gilroy's men to a narrow win over Wexford.

"We know we have a lot to improve on and what we produced out there wouldn't be enough to win an All-Ireland quarter-final. We have a bit to go away and work on," said Cullen.

"We've mixed emotions. There was some good stuff, some okay stuff and some very bad stuff at times."

Their best moment came when recent Championship debutant James McCarthy waltzed through the Wexford defence to slam home a terrific 56th minute goal.

The defender's assured strike put Dublin 2-10 to 1-8 ahead and it was a vital score on a day when their full-forward line failed to fire.

Reigning Footballer of the Year Bernard Brogan scored three points but hit a succession of wides and was substituted along with Diarmuid Connolly.

Cullen added: "Wexford clogged it up in front of goal and some of our shooters were a bit off with the radar at times.

"But we'd have been devastated had we lost that game, regardless of the back door. We want to keep winning.

"We were probably making life hard for ourselves with poor option taking and shooting from tight angles.

"We struggled to get out in front of our men and if you don’t have those basics right then tactics go out the window."

Corner forward Eoghan O'Gara had to be replaced at half-time due to a wrist injury. He will have X-rays on it, while a hip injury to corner back Paul Conlon is not thought to be serious.

Dublin manager Pat Gilroy said that Michael Darragh Macauley and Philly McMahon will struggle to be fit for the All-Ireland quarter-final in three weeks' time.

Reflecting on yesterday's hard-fought victory at Croke Park, Gilroy said: "The Wexford pressure was severe and I think some of the options we took a lot of the time were not the right option.

"We didn’t support the guys in the full-forward line maybe enough. A couple of times they were far too isolated, particularly in the first half.

"We got the ball into their half 45 times - into the scoring area - and 33 times we got nothing off it. We needed to change it. It was one of those days where things weren’t running for those fellas.

"Yet, the team just kept plugging away and guys came in. I think Barry (Cahill) did very well when he came in and Kevin (McManamon) did very well when he came in.

"Kevin was one of the game changers for us. He started to get ball and beat men which was crucial for us."

Gilroy also defended his decision to withdraw a misfiring Bernard Brogan with nine minutes to go and the game still in the melting pot.

"We learned to win in a very ugly way. We didn't perform well. We had a situation that hasn't happened where Bernard didn't...he was winning ball and getting shots off but he had 11 wides himself. That is a very unusual situation.

"We were tempted, only for Eoghan got injured, to take Bernard off a bit earlier because he is human and he is allowed have the odd off-day. In fairness to him, he hasn't done that for a long, long time."