Dublin 4-25
Longford 0-10
Jim Gavin’s men sent out a statement of intent as they dismantled a poor Longford side in Croke Park this afternoon.
There was never any doubt as to today’s outcome, with Dublin proverbially beating their chest in search of a fifth consecutive Leinster Senior Football Championship title.
An interesting statistic coming into the game was the fact that in Dublin’s last four Leinster finals, their average winning margin was just over seven points. If they displayed this dominance against the second best team in the province, what chance did Longford stand?
Very little, it proved, with Dublin racing to a 1-7 to 0-1 lead in the opening 10 minutes of the game.
Brian Fenton and Kevin McManamon slotted over in the opening few minutes before a quick one two with Philly McMahon carved open the Longford defence and Diarmuid Connolly made no mistake.
This pattern continued throughout the first half, with Dublin flexing every attacking muscle at their disposal. Bernard Brogan, Ciaran Kilkenny and Paul Flynn all got on the score sheet to give you a feeling it was going to be a very long afternoon for Jack Sheedy’s men.
Longford, to their credit, mustered six points before Dublin’s second goal on 27 minutes. Liam Connerton and Rory Connor attempting to inspire the most unlikely revival.
Whatever competitive edge was left in the game was killed after the second goal, when a marauding McManamon fed Paul Flynn who rifled a shot past the helpless Paddy Collum.
Dublin went in at the interval with a twelve point cushion, Longford's valiant effort reflected as a respectable eight points on the scoreboard.
Longford would only register two more scores in the game courtesy of Brian Kavanagh.
Two goals in the space of two minutes thanks to Dean Rock and Bernard Brogan midway through the second half heaped even more misery on an already dejected Longford.
Ross McNerney suffered a nasty looking head injury in the final minutes which stopped play for a number of minutes while he received treatment off medics.
Dublin would go on to score another four points in the closing stages and reaffirmed what everyone in the stadium already knew; they are an entirely different class.
A rather pointless exercise, but Jim Gavin gets up and running and he’ll be hoping the rest of the Leinster campaign will be as easy.
Dublin:
Stephen Cluxton, Jonny Cooper, David Byrne, Philip McMahon, Darren Daly, John Small, Jack McCaffrey, Brian Fenton, Denis Bastick, Paul Flynn , Ciaran Kilkenny, Diarmuid Connolly, Dean Rock, Kevin McManamon, Bernard Brogan
Longford:
Paddy Collum, Dermot Brady, Barry O’Farrell, Cian Farrell,Colm P.Smyth, Barry Gilleran, Diarmuid Masterson, Kevin Diffley, Michael Quinn, Rory Connor, Ronan McEntire, Peter Foy, Barry McKeon, Brian Kavanagh, Ross McNerney.
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