Absence of spring all round

NFL Division Two/ Dublin 1-7 Westmeath 1-5:So. Stop us if you hear something surprising. Dublin blew hot and cold. The Leinster champions still look a card short of a winning hand. Westmeath gave flashes of potential but haven't enough of that potential all around the park. The Westmeath manager, Tomás Ó Flaharta, spoke to the media. Paul Caffrey didn't. It was cold.

National League games in early February tend not to be life-threatening to those with serious heart conditions, and if Dublin's margin at the end of trading on Saturday night was a mere two points the excitement levels in Parnell Park meant very few pulses quickened.

The Dubs gave debuts to a handful of players and despite some general tinkering with their format still had enough for a Westmeath side whose physical strength and speed were unmatched by a confidence in their ability to get the job done.

Of Dublin's newcomers, Eamonn Fennell continues to impress. He faded here after a bright start and has become a little shot-shy after some spectacular misses during the O'Byrne Cup campaign, but there is enough to work with for a side that needs midfield back-up.

Paul Flynn scored a wonderfully taken first-half goal but, like John O'Brien, who started as centre forward, he was an intermittent presence.

Phillip McMahon, a nippy wing back from Ballymun, showed well also but his distribution down the right flank was erratic.

No messiahs then but a few willing apprentices.

There were times early on when it seemed Dublin would just steamroll their opposition. Then again, there are times in every game when Dublin threaten to do that.

They began brightly, never really letting Westmeath's unwillingness to be pushed around become any kind of an issue.

Mark Vaughan, who had a quiet night apart from dead-ball work, kicked an early point, and Conal Keaney had added another before a fine move, initiated by Fennell down the left wing, saw the play switch and Bryan Cullen set Paul Flynn up for a goal.

Flynn took his chance with aplomb. Dublin were five points up after 17 minutes.

A time to kill Westmeath off or a time to ease off? Dublin aren't a side with a fondness for putting the pedal to the metal and they settled down to fussily reshuffling their forward lines.

Without a Brogan brother in either line, those forwards looked a lot blunter than the five-point lead would suggest. Westmeath, meanwhile, rolled up the sleeves and started to toil, Martin Flanagan in particular becoming more of a presence in midfield.

Dessie Dolan hit a free to set up a passage of play wherein Dublin were besieged in their own half. For a while it seemed the best Westmeath would do with that glut of possession was a fine lofted point from Flanagan, which carried over the bar from 40 yards. Then just before the half hour the visitors' persistence with transferring the ball at speed over short distances paid off when the energetic Fergal Wilson fed Dessie Dolan on the burst and Dolan devoured the gap and popped the goal.

Flanagan added a 45 just before the break as Dublin switched David Henry on to the increasingly influential Dolan. A free from Vaughan in injury time levelled the scores and gave us a flavour of the second half.

Whatever goes into the half-time tea in Parnell Park certainly has a soothing effect. The second half yielded one score from play - thank you, Bryan Cullen - and the remainder of the half was an exercise in the art of the wide and the art of the free.

Vaughan, kicking into the wind now, hit three superb dead balls for Dublin, while Dessie Dolan and Alan Mangan hit one apiece for Westmeath.

None of it thrilled us or satisfied us or even surprised us. Roll on, springtime!

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; D Henry, N O'Shea, S O'Shaughnessy; P McMahon, P Casey, C Moran; E Fennell, S Ryan; B Cullen (0-1), J O'Brien, P Flynn (1-0); J Sherlock, C Keaney (0-1), M Vaughan (0-5, frees). Subs: B McManamon for O'Brien (43 mins), D Murray for Flynn (65 mins), K Bonner for Keaney (68 mins), D Lally for Cullen (71 mins).

WESTMEATH: G Connaughton; F Boyle, K Gavin, J Keane; M Ennis, D Heavin, D Healy; M Flanagan (0-2, one a 45), D Duffy; F Wilson, A Clinton, D Bannon; M Green, D Dolan (1-2, two points frees), P Bannon. Subs: A Mangan (0-1, free)for D Bannon (16 mins), G Dolan for P Bannon (20 mins), K Scally for Clinton (58 mins), T Cleary for G Dolan (62 mins), D O'Donoghue for Mangan (67 mins).

Referee: J McQuillan( Cavan).