Mixed day for Dublin's old guard

WITH the first and second teams somewhere up in the air between here and California, Dublin's third team recorded an untaxing victory over Carlow at Dr Cullen Park in yesterday's O'Byrne Cup quarter-final before a committed crowd of about 1,000 who ignored wet wintry conditions to attend.

Of course it may not be the third team by the time the All-Ireland champions re-assemble for training and it was with a view to furthering that debate that Dublin manager Mickey Whelan put together yesterday's improvised selection. There were reasons for a certain satisfaction - the cohesion and free scoring of the team - but not every experiment showed signs of success and the opposition frequently looked present in body alone.

A number of eager newcomers made reasonable impressions but it was on those more familiar faces, recalled to action, that most attention focused. In this regard little appears to have changed. Eamonn Heery and Niall Guiden - both of whom are live contenders for the first team - were punished for characteristic recklessness, Heery booked in the 37th minute and Guiden given the line for a foul which left Joe Murphy stretched eight minutes later.

At full forward, the awesome scale of Joe McNally's physique was getting a first outing in the county colours for four years. It wasn't a great afternoon for the long-awaited comeback. He could hardly have hoped for conditions as compatible as they were the pitch was slow and heavy, Dublin saw a good deal of ball and Carlow weren't exactly pushing it. After a reportedly brilliant display for his club last week, McNally struggled to adjust even to this limited version of the inter-county game. He fumbled a number of balls and failed to trouble Sean Kavanagh under the few high deliveries that came his way.

Elsewhere, Damian O'Brien and Martin Doran had good matches in the half-forward line. Neither is new but Doran at centre forward was particularly impressive, knocking over six points from play. Senan Moylan had a fine afternoon at midfield and Paul Croft substantiated his reputed potential at right wing back.

Having last week secured the agreement of the county board that Eire Og's quest for the All-Ireland club title should take precedence over Carlow's promotion challenge in Division Four, Bobby Miller - who manages both teams - was hardly likely to divert much energy into an O'Byrne Cup fixture.

Before the match he had referred to the amount of stamina training being undertaken by the team and with nine Eire Og players starting the match, yesterday was little more than another training session. Carlow lacked sharpness and only two of the forwards managed to score. Admittedly Muckle Keating bagged 2-4 but that was largely because of free-taking and the sort of predatory instincts that even the severest stamina training can't blunt.

Carlow started positively and ran enthusiastically at Dublin but even during this high point of their endeavours, they fatally leaked a couple of goals at the back.

In the third minute a long-range effort by Senan Moylan came back off the post and Declan Barnes followed up to finish to the net for the first score of the afternoon.

Keating's frees kept Carlow in touch and Garvan Ware and Willie Quinlan also chipped in a couple to balance the match by the 10th minute, but 0-4 to 1-2 was as close as Carlow were to get. Three minutes later, Lawlor was hauled down for a penalty which he converted with calm precision.

By half-time Dublin led by six points and the match was effectively decided. So it proved in the second half, during which the only points of interest were Guiden's sending-off, two opportunist goals by Keating and a late, slightly fortuitous goal, by Dublin substitute Gavin O'Donoghue.

Dublin play holders Wexford in next week's semi-final.