Dublin 0-11 Westmeath 0-9: Sitting in Parnell Park on Saturday night at about eight o'clock and colder than a well-digger's ass, you could just feel the glamour draining out of the place like water going down a plughole.
We looked at each and in our suffering we said to ourselves that, hey, shivering under bright floodlights on a Saturday night is really no different from shivering under clouds on a Sunday afternoon. Won't get fooled again, we said.
Luckily, the last 10 minutes of this latest Saturday night special got the circulation going again. Dublin, who looked to be sneaking the points by means of the tactic of being marginally less inept in front of goal, suddenly found Westmeath breathing down their necks. A lead of five points went up in smoke as the visitors filched six without retribution in 12 minutes.
Luckily too, Dublin had Jason Sherlock to throw into the mix. Jayo looked down the pitch as he made his entrance and tapped a finger against his temple in a gesture we all appreciated. Start playing smarter football, boys. Dublin duly did that. Sherlock continued the hinting with a couple of sublime passes. Next thing we knew it was all over bar the shouting.
The shouting took place between an incandescent Páidí Ó Sé and a slightly less animated Pillar Caffrey. An unspecified but unsporting gesture, said Páidí afterwards, noting with a smile that he'd been coming to the big smoke for 30 years now without anyone touching him. Anyone who know Paul Caffrey knows he ain't unsporting, said Paul. No afters then, but a little something in the mix for the Leinster championship this summer.
Both sides will need a personality change before then, however. Dublin and Westmeath played some dull, alien game for the first half-hour. Neither scored from play. In the private scoreboards of their heads they seemed to be keeping count of the niggles.
By the time a moderate game broke out Westmeath had lost Donal O'Donoghue and Dublin had lost Ciarán Whelan, both victims of the increasingly tedious yellow-peril rule.
Dublin got a point from play just after the half hour, Conal Keaney in what was for him an all-too-rare moment of composure popping it in the space between the posts just before that space had begun to heal up.
Westmeath were three points adrift at half-time and Dessie Dolan, having started brightly, was by then submerged by Paul Griffin's bright excellence. At midfield Westmeath were getting the lion's share, but Shane Ryan was working and distributing steadily. Both teams had something going on in the middle third of the field. It was just a bad night for forwards.
For Dublin, Mark Vaughan is a precocious and literally luminous talent, but on Saturday didn't seem to know what to do with all that precocity. As a round peg he did his best to fit into a square hole but was too inhibited. They should let him run free for a few games before they start roping him into patterns.
And Dublin do need something different up front. They have lots of athletes in their forward lines but few thinkers. The example of Mossy Quinn should suffice. This winter's run of starts is bringing the best out of a fine player. Two years shunting between bench, pitch and oblivion unravelled his confidence. On Saturday he saved Dublin's bacon. In those last 10 minutes he won a free, which he dunked over from 45 metres, and then took the best score of the night, nicking it while in traffic on the left wing.
Dublin wrapped it up when a lovely pass from Sherlock found Lally, who slipped the ball over the bar. So Dublin banked the points. Some progress but some problems too: 14 wides on Saturday, 14 last week against Kerry.
"It was a spirited performance and that should be a basic requirement for any lad who puts on the Dublin jersey," said Caffrey. "At eight-all we looked as if we could lose it. The lads have put in a few good performances without getting anything out pointswise. It's pleasing that the lads were able to dig it out the ugly way."
Páidí was philosophical.
"I was proud of the way our lads battled. In the end we were a bit unlucky not to have squeezed an oul free near the end - if there was a green and gold jersey on we might have got it."
Westmeath play Kerry next week so Páidí will get an early opportunity to test that theory.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Griffin, P Christie, S O'Shaughnessy; P Casey, B Cullen, P Andrews; C Whelan, S Ryan; C Moran, L Óg Ó hÉineacháin, D Lally (0-1); M Vaughan, C Keaney (0-1), T Quinn (0-7, 0-6f). Subs: S Connell (0-1) for Ó hÉineacháin (ht), C Goggins for O'Shaughnessy (53 mins), J Sherlock for Vaughan (54 mins).
WESTMEATH: G Connaughton; J Davitt, D O'Donoghue, J Keane; D McDermott, D Healy, M Ennis (0-1); R O'Connell, D O'Shaughnessy (0-1); J Brennan, M Flanagan, P Mulvihill; A Mangan, Denis Glennon (0-1), D Dolan (0-4, frees). Subs: J Fallon (0-2, 0-1f) for Mulvihill (25 mins), D Mitchell for Flanagan (ht), David Glennon for Mangan (54 mins), D Heavin for McDermott (68 mins), P Tormey for Brennan (70 mins).
Yellow cards: Dublin: C Whelan replaced by D Homan (0-1) (34 mins). Westmeath: D O'Donoghue replaced by D Kilmartin (22 mins).
Referee: P McEnaney (Monaghan).
