Dublin 1-18 Laois 0-11:It's hard to know what exactly Pat Gilroy will take from this 10-point win over Laois in the second Leinster SFC quarter-final of the day, but despite the apparent ease with which it was achieved, he will have concerns.
Dublin scored 17 chances from 35, a striker-rate of just under 50 per cent, and at times concentration slipped to allow Laois, albeit briefly, back into the game. Both might be issues against more accomplished opposition but they weren’t today.
Indeed, five of those chances missed were down solely to Eoin Culliton in the Laois goal, who denied Diarmuid Connolly on four of the five occasions they confronted each other, and Bernard Brogan on another. The first save was good but the second and third, when Connolly sought the bottom corner in the first half, were among the best Headquarters has ever witnessed.
Had he not been alive to the danger each time, Dublin’s advantage at the break would have been 14 points, not five.
Dublin’s movement up front was unplayable at times, however, and their timing was pretty slick too. Connolly's goal came at the third attempt in the 23rd minute, when he opted to slot it between Culliton’s legs, but it came after an Alan Brogan point arrested a worrying flurry of Laois points.
After a roaring start the Dubs had led by four points to nil until the 17th minute when Ross Munnelly scored a free with Laois’s second effort at the posts. He quickly added another and Daithi Carroll closed the gap to one.
Suddenly the good work was undone, but Bernard Brogan combined with brother Alan for a fifth point almost immediately and then Connolly hit the net for a five-point lead.
Culliton came to the rescue again when Bernard Brogan dispossessed his man and shot smartly, but the forward pointed his third soon after Stephen Cluxton added his second 45 for a seven-point lead.
The gap was closed before the break by two Pádraig McMahon points and, inspired by Munnelly, they scored three unanswered points after the break. The gap was two, but again Dublin’s timing was spot on.
They scored seven in succession – three from Bernard Brogan, two from Alan and two from Connolly - to quell the comeback.
There was still time for another duel between Culliton and Connolly. This time the goalkeeper got a little fortunate when the Dubliner's flicked shot off the turf caught the inside of his leg, but he made his own luck in the first half.
Dublin will now Kildare in the Leinster semi-final.