Dublin 0-17; Mayo 0-17
Ostensibly, this game was about topping the group and a rest next weekend. It turned out to be another round of Chinese torture for Mayo who thought they had put Dublin to the sword when nudging ahead with 40 second of added time remaining, but once again they were stung by a capital comeback as man of the match Cormac Costello fisted over the equalizer with the last move of the game.
So the Dublin “curse” persists for yet another manager, but Kevin McStay was having none of that after the game. Instead he was delighted at how his team had gone down the finishing strait with the All Ireland champions and refused to buckle under the pressure, even when Dubs boss Dessie Farrell sent in the likes of Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion and last year’s skipper James McCarthy to finish the job.
The first two mentioned both scored late points to give Dublin the slightest of advantages but each time, this young Mayo team, prompted superbly by Aidan O’Shea, found answers to keep their fans in the 17,000 who packed Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon, cheering to the echo.
Farrell’s team finished top of Group 2 on score difference and will get the bonus of a two-week break before taking on one of the preliminary quarter-finalists the weekend after next. The good news for Mayo is they will have home advantage against low-flying Derry and will hope that can catapult them into the last eight after missing out last year.
Ryan O’Donoghue’s converted free three minutes into added-time looked like giving Mayo the advantage of a weekend off but Dublin are not champions for nothing and from the kickout Ciaran Kilenny made a fabulous catch before McCaffrey took on the possession and fed the in-form Costello who thrilled the traveling Metropolitans by raising the final white flag.
This was a fine spectacle of a game and one where unlike the Galway-Armagh stalemate had players not afraid to run at defenders in the hope of making penetrating runs.
The other match was a case of over and back in possession and one hope that Jim Gavin’s proposals to change some of the current rules takes into consideration the amount of passing backwards that has now come in to strangle the game for the fans looking on.
It was nip and tuck through the first half with Dublin 0-7 to 0-6 ahead thanks mainly to Costello hitting four points in this moiety, two from play.
At the other end O’Donoghue was the Mayo main man, clipping over a string of frees to add scores from the impressive O’Shea. The introduction of Colm Basquwel helped the Dubs take a three-point lead but Mayo responded with Tommy Conroy, Mattie Ruane and Conor Loftus getting on the end of good move to tie the game.
And the best was yet to come as the ubiquitous Ciarán Kilkenny, Costello, McCaffrey and Basquel all raised flags which were answered time and again by the excellent O’Donoghue (2), Ruane and Conroy to leave the sides still deadlocked coming up to the hour mark.
Two class Dublin scores from Mannion and express defender Eoin Murchan pushed the Leinster men two to the good and we wondered had Mayo a kick left in them?
They had indeed and a bit more as O’Donoghue hit a huge point from range and ‘keeper Colm Reape landed a '45.
O’Donoghue then looked to have won it when he held his nerve from an awkward free to raise a white flag but immediately Dublin got back up the field for Costello to equalize.
A day for first among equals, but you always get the impression that Dublin are a little bit more equal when the big questions are asked.
Afterwards McStay said: “We got ourselves into a great position. I hope people realize now we were trying to win the game. We gave it our best shot, but look, Dublin are a terrific team. It was very hard to see how they'd come back from that, but if the one team can do, they did it.
"We asked for a big effort to represent the county well today in a significant fixture, kind of the marquee fixture of the weekend, and I really felt we did that. We went so deep into the well and almost pulled it off, and we executed really well under pressure and just got clipped at the end."
Dublin Boss Farrell was happy with how his side had shown character to fight back for a draw which gives them a chance to recuperate this weekend.
"It was a very, very tough encounter. We expected no more, to be honest. Mayo are a great side and had made significant improvement, I think, since their defeat to Galway. Watching them over their last couple of games, you could see they definitely made some serious adjustments. And we were going to be in for a right battle today, and it panned out that way, it went down to the wire."
Dublin: S Cluxton; E Murchan, M Fitzsimons, S McMahon; B Howard, J Small, S Bugler (0-1); B Fenton, T Lahiff; N Scully (0-1), C Costello (0-7, 0-3fs), C Kilkenny (0-1); P Small (0-1), C O’Callaghan (0-1), C Basquel (0-2) Subs: K McGinnis for Lahiff (HT); J McCaffrey (0-1) for Scully (51); P Mannion for P Small (51); R McGarry for McGinnis (63); J McCarthy for Bugler (67).
Mayo: C Reape (0-1, ‘45); J Coyne, D McBrien, R Brickendenc; S Callinan, S Coen (0-1), E McLaughlin; J Carney, M Ruane (0-2); D McHugh, D McHale, J Flynn (0-1); A O’Shea (0-01f), T Conroy (0-3), R O’Donoghue (0-7, 0-5fs) Subs: C Loftus (0-1) for McLaughlin (33, inj); C O’Connor for McHale (55); D O’Connor for Coen (58); B Tuohy for Ruane (63); P Towey for Carney (67).
Ref: M McNally (Monaghan).
