Jury still out as Dublin win fails to convince

The mutterings among the blue jerseys coming out of Croke Park yesterday were only one indication that the jury is still out on this Dublin team. A smooth flight over the first hurdle of this Leinster championship, yes; it's just that the bar was not raised very high.

Ian Robertson quickly dismissed any doubts about his abilities at full forward when he scored the first of Dublin's brace of goals on 10 minutes and substitute Mick O'Keeffe made an equally impressive statement with the second a little under five minutes after the interval. The two-goal advantage does not tell the full story, however. It's what happened in between that will force a more searching examination should Dublin progress into the later stages of the Leinster championship.

Never really under pressure, they still managed to sink to a standard of play witnessed in the league final last month and championship encounters of recent years. For a start, the 17 wides are sure to concern manager Tommy Carr, coming as they did with equal regularity and margin. And on a few occasions at least, there was no excuse except for pure recklessness.

The problems among the forwards, while much improved, are far from solved. One has rarely seen Dessie Farrell more subdued while Jim Gavin has seldom had a worse day. There was a consistent show from Brendan O'Brien at corner forward considering the pressure of championship debuts, but in terms of reliability it's only Declan Darcy and Ciaran Whelan who can allow themselves a bow.

For Louth, disappointment is now bottled away as the flavour of the decade. This sixth championship meeting with Dublin within the same period is again something to forget and for them the new millennium can't come quickly enough.

There were few moments to savour, and Alan Doherty's strong contribution combined with the hard work of Seamus O'Hanlon and Colin Kelly is no consolation. It took their best efforts to stay within striking distance of Dublin and once that slipped, the challenge all but disintegrated.

Even with the favourable breeze in the first half, they never got their game rolling. Only Aaron Hoey benefited with his opening point after four minutes as Ollie McDonnell and Sean O'Neill let their chances drift too high. As the Dublin defence steadied, the game shifted direction. Brian Stynes appeared a little slow at midfield but Whelan was fluid and highly creative. Shortly after Gavin's free went badly wide, Darcy made an ambitious move that swept on through Whelan to reach Robertson, and with only Gareth O'Neill to avoid, Dublin had their first points in the net.

Darcy, O'Brien and Stynes, when given the space, built on the goal so that by the 20-minute mark, they led by five. Robertson was never too far from the action up front and thanks to Whelan, there was plenty of it. Seamus O'Hanlon, meanwhile, was proving vital in allowing the ball to change direction and with Doherty, Kelly and himself slowly constructing the scores, it was still an open contest, 1-7 to 0-7 going into the break.

An altered Dublin side in the second half appeared far more capable. With O'Keeffe replacing Gavin and switches in defence improving security, they were allowed to more or less take over. Darcy's accuracy was improving all the time and when Louth collapsed into one of their most disorganised defensive moments, Robertson set up O'Keeffe for goal number two. Paul Curran played an early role, finding the space for Robertson, and once O'Keeffe had the ball his close-range shot was not going anywhere but the top corner.

What kept the Louth points coming was not so much the space in the Dublin backs, but rather their distance from their man. The tackles were there, yet not hard enough to prevent Louth from clawing back seven more points before the end. None of them came close to the goal, and David Byrne barely felt the leather on his gloves, but had newcomer David Reilly and Cathal O'Hanlon created more of a presence, things could have been different.

Substitute Peter McGinnity and Kelly added the last two points for Louth at a stage when Dublin may well have forgotten how to score. Whelan, Enda Sheehy and Darcy were all guilty of late wides that made it a shaky conclusion. Two of those by Whelan could well have found the net but by then the stands were already emptying in the belief that the more important days are to come.

It was left to the Dublin supporters, happily waving "no seats here" banners in the depths of Hill 16, to have the final word. With faint echoes of We Shall Not Be Moved, they have clear ambitions to hold on to the tenure for some time yet. How much longer that extends into the summer, however, will depend on how their team gels in the weeks ahead.