Dublin v Monaghan - GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final
By John Harrington
Dublin manager Jim Gavin was understandably pleased with his team’s performance after this evening’s comfortable win over Monaghan in the All-Ireland SFC Quarter-Final.
Monaghan set up to contain, but they were powerless to resist Dublin’s free-flowing attack.
“We are just happy to be in the semi-final,” said Gavin after the game.
“Going into the game we knew that Monaghan had six championship games under their belt and were battle hardened.
“I think the result is a reflection of the respect we gave to Monaghan. We prepared really well for this game and I thought the players did well in the first half against 13 men behind the ball.
“We were very controlled and composed, and were deserved leaders at half time. I think that preparation in the last two weeks was really good. A lot of hard work was done in the shadows.
“You saw when Monaghan got a run there and showed the capacity to take some great scores if we let them but I thought our team defence was very strong.
"1-11 from play and a lot of wides in second half won’t be good enough the next day that’s for sure. It certainly gives us something to take away to the training ground that’s for sure.”
One major bonus for Dublin was the return to action of Paul Flynn and Michael Darragh MacAuley who hadn’t featured in the Championship this year before coming on as second-half substitutes in this match.
“It’s important to get players who are in form, to give them action, and both of them have been,” said Gavin.
“It's been really competitive and there's definitely a sense within the management team that we're building momentum and the players are leading that charge. It's the right time of the season to be doing it, that's for sure.
“Balance that by saying that second-half performance won't be good enough the next day. But I won't need to tell the players that, they'll now it themselves.
“It's going to be interesting over the next couple of weeks. We have that other big challenge to face against Tyrone.
“Haven't looked at them since February if I'm honest, but Dublin-Tyrone games are always tight.”
