Allianz Hurling League Division 1B

DUBLIN 3-15 CARLOW 0-18

By Paul Keane at Parnell Park

New Dublin manager Mattie Kenny had reason to thank his talented substitutes as the hosts and favourites came from behind at Parnell Park to shrug off a game Carlow.

Dublin were two points down at half-time when Donal Burke came on and the Na Fianna attacker scored 1-4 to turn a tricky situation into a six-point win.

Fellow subs Tomas Connolly and Oisin O'Rorke also added scores while former All-Star Danny Sutcliffe had a strong impact when he came on.

Eamonn Dillon and Darragh O'Connell scored the other goals as Dublin lived dangerously initially before securing the anticipated win.

They head to Offaly next weekend while Carlow will at least be on home soil for the intimidating visit of Galway.

The McDonagh Cup champions had a brilliant performer in Marty Kavanagh who hit 12 points in damp and heavy conditions.

Carlow came into the game as considerable underdogs though felt they were competitive for long spells in last month's 2-21 to 1-16 Walsh Cup defeat to the Dubs.

That was Kenny's first competitive game in charge and he looked set for a similar win in his first league game as boss after a promising start.

Feargal Whitely clipped a neat point inside the opening minute and Fiontan McGibb, a late addition to the forward line, added another before O'Connell netted in the fourth minute.

O'Connell, who sat out last year's Championship and was injured for much of 2017, capitalised after great work by the impressive John Hetherton who fetched well.

Dublin led 1-2 to 0-1 at that stage but the hosts only hit four more points in the entire half with just one of those coming from play.

Hetherton got all four of those scores as Dublin were surprisingly forced to rely on scraps to survive.

Led by Kavanagh in attack, Carlow came into the game strongly and outscored Dublin by six points after O'Connell's goal to lead 0-11 to 1-6 at half-time.

Kavanagh fired eight of those Carlow points in the first-half and though just two came from play he was hugely influential in pressurising the Dublin defence.

Dublin, without Conal Keaney, Mark Schutte and Cian O'Callaghan, were still close to full strength and rued six first-half wides.

They were much better in the second-half and restarted with an unanswered 1-3 including Dillon's 40th minute goal to take the lead.

They remained ahead from there on with Sutcliffe's introduction boosting their attack and Burke picking off three points in a row at one stage.

But Carlow refused to throw in the towel and were still only two points behind with five minutes to go after a mini-rally.

Burke settled it with his goal then, Dublin's third, after a great run across the face of the goal from Dillon set him up.

Scorers for Dublin: Donal Burke 1-4, Eamonn Dillon 1-1, John Hetherton 0-4 (3fs), Darragh O'Connell 1-0, Fiontan McGibb 0-2, Oisin O'Rorke 0-1 (f), Feargal Whitely 0-1, Tomas Connolly 0-1, Paddy Smyth 0-1.

Scorers for Carlow: Marty Kavanagh 0-12 (9fs), Ted Joyce 0-2, Chris Nolan 0-2, James Doyle 0-1, Seamus Murphy 0-1.

DUBLIN: Alan Nolan; James Madden, Eoghan O'Donnell, Paddy Smyth; Chris Crummey, Sean Moran, Shane Barrett; Jake Malone, Darragh O'Connell; Feargal Whitely, John Hetherton, Fiontan McGibb; Riain McBride, Liam Rushe, Eamonn Dillon.

Subs: Tomas Connolly for Madden (9), Donal Burke for Whitely (h/t), Danny Sutcliffe for Rushe (48), Davy Keogh for Malone (60), Oisin O'Rorke for McGibb (67).

CARLOW: Brian Tracey; Alan Corcoran, Paul Doyle, Michael Doyle; Eoin Nolan, David English, Richard Coady; Jack Kavanagh, Sean Whelan; John Michael Nolan, Seamus Murphy, Edward Byrne; Chris Nolan, Ted Joyce, Martin Kavanagh.

Subs: James Doyle for Murphy (43), Jon Nolan for Joyce (49), Richard Kelly for E Nolan (57), Jack Murphy for Byrne (62), Ger Coady for M Doyle (62).

REFEREE: Alan Kelly (Galway).