All-Ireland SFC qualifier fourth round/ Dublin 1-14 Roscommon 0-13: Dublin reached this year's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football quarter-finals by winning at Croke Park for the first time since the old Hill 16 terrace was roped off and demolished.
For the team's plentiful support among the 63,069-strong crowd, there was the balancing consideration that Tommy Lyons's men laboured to put away an ordinary enough Roscommon side.
The match was attended by a strong wind, which nonetheless managed to have little material influence with Dublin winning both halves by two points. But considering the back of their opponents' challenge should have been broken by failure to harness the elements to any more comforting effect than a two-point deficit by half-time, Dublin will be disappointed not to have recorded a more punishing margin of victory.
Yet things could have been a good bit worse. Such was the defensive uncertainty exhibited by the winners that Roscommon, with a number of goal chances, could have ended up the latest county unexpectedly to knock Dublin on the head in Croke Park.
Only good goalkeeping by Stephen Cluxton and some wretched finishing prevented Roscommon capitalising on their chances.
Given centrefield was also less than inspiring it was left to the Dublin forwards to transact the business of winning and this they did. Jason Sherlock was the main provider with a sizeable 1-4 from play - his goal in the 29th minute turning the game firmly against Roscommon and his second-half points keeping it that way - but he had good support from an impressive full-forward line. Alan Brogan wandered far and wide and shot three points whereas Ian Robertson looked a major addition with a fine display as target man.
Greater familiarity with the team should sharpen up his distribution, as at times he was a little out of synch with the movement around him but in general he was excellent, winning ball almost at will and selflessly laying it off. It was an irony Tom Carr was on the other line given the extent to which an uninjured Robertson could have transformed the Roscommon manager's four years in charge of Dublin.
Lyons's secretive selections are becoming less closely guarded with the programme correctly listing the starting 15 and only a switch between Conal Keaney and Sherlock qualifying the actual line-out.
Roscommon did more switching, the main gambit being the migration of Francie Grehan from centre back to centre forward with David Casey dropping back to his own 40 and Stephen Lohan to centrefield.
They got off to a flying start. Gary Cox, Nigel Dineen and Ger Heneghan, from a free, popped over unanswered points in the first five minutes but within an even shorter space of time, the advantage had evaporated. Dublin's first steady period of attacking rhythm saw Robertson set up Sherlock for a point, centre back Brian Cullen motor up from the back for a second and a Darren Magee-Ciarán Whelan combination create an equaliser for Brogan.
Scoring proceeded on a tightly-balanced basis until Sherlock's goal, which gave Dublin a lead they would never relinquish. But for most of the first half the winners were in dire trouble at the back. Coman Goggins was on yellow after 10 minutes and under pressure so, with the alarm bell ringing, Lyons switched him with Paul Griffin. This turned into a bit of a nightmare for the Kilmacud man.
Having happily settled into his original role at wing back, Griffin found himself back in the corner and struggling to cope with Ger Heneghan. In the 21st minute this nearly led to disaster.
Unluckily turned after slipping, Griffin lost Heneghan who placed Séamus O'Neill for a shot, which was well blocked by Cluxton. Jonathan Dunning pounced on the rebound and his kick towards the left corner was just about kept out by Paul Casey.
Too often Dublin simply didn't pick up their men and the consequence was several incidents of Roscommon players drifting - or running - into space and getting uncontested opportunities.
O'Neill was winning ball at will around centrefield.
This restricted the Dublin forwards' rations and what ball was won in the middle was so poorly used that it restricted their rations even further.
Even the second-half introduction of Jonathan Magee to join his brother in place of Darren Homan failed to change the trend and so Dublin improvised. Whelan and Robertson were pulled back to crowd the middle and Cluxton's kick-outs tried to avoid O'Neill's zone but primary possession still proved a problem.
The goal that turned the match was, however, initiated by Darren Magee's long delivery in the 29th minute.
Brogan rose to get a brilliant flick into the unmarked Sherlock. His finish was perfect; a nudge to Shane Curran's left as he moved across goal in the other direction.
Dublin led 1-8 to 0-9 at the break and within a couple of minutes had doubled that through Whelan and Brogan. But any notion that Roscommon would disintegrate in the face of the wind proved fanciful, as the Connacht finalists stubbornly stayed more or less within a score of the match.
And they had the chances to get that goal. The best of them was a wide from John Hanly's in the 42nd minute after Cluxton came out smartly to pressurise the attacker.
A big roar greeted Roscommon replacement Frankie Dolan, brought on for the final quarter. But any hope that his surprising omission would kick-start last year's form was undermined when Dolan's first act was to concede a dopey free and - apart from an exquisite kicked pass to fellow replacement John Tiernan - things didn't get much more effective thereafter.
Dublin's super sub, Des Farrell, also came on to great acclaim but within six minutes he had been ominously helped off with a knee injury that didn't look good for the veteran forward.
It wasn't until injury-time that Dublin made the match safe with a point from Senan Connell.
DUBLIN: 1. S Cluxton; 2. B Cahill, 3. P Christie, 4. C Goggins; 5. P Casey, 6. B Cullen (0-2, 45), 7. P Griffin; 8. D Homan (0-1), 9. D Magee; 15. C Keaney (0-1, free), 11. C Whelan (0-2, capt.), 12. S Connell (0-1); 13. A Brogan (0-3), 14. I Robertson, 10. J Sherlock (1-4). Subs: 21. J Magee for Homan (45 mins), 18. S Ryan for Goggins (49 mins); 22. D Farrell for Keaney (56 mins), 24. T Quinn for Farrell (62 mins).
ROSCOMMON: 1. S Curran (capt); 2. R Cox, 3. M Ryan, 4. J Whyte; 5. A McPadden, 9. D Casey, 7. M Ennis; 8. S O'Neill (0-1), 12. S Lohan (0-3); 11. J Hanly, 6. F Grehan, 10. G Cox (0-1); 13. J Dunning, 14. N Dineen (0-2), 15. G Heneghan (0-5, four frees).Subs: 21. J Tiernan (0-1) for R Cox (31 mins), 23. K Mannion for Lohan (51 mins), 22. F Dolan for Dunning (54 mins), 19. J Rogers for Towey (54 mins), 20. B Higgins for Hanly (65 mins).
Referee: G Harrington (Cork).
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