Blues boss Gavin bemoans champions’ wastefulness
JIM GAVIN watched his AllIreland champions launch their Super 8s campaign with a five-point win against Donegal – and declared it won’t be good enough away to Tyrone next week.
Dublin saw off Ulster champions Donegal by five points in Croke Park last night, with Niall Scully goals either side of half time settling the contest and allowing them to see out the tie over the closing quarter.
But they passed up at least three clear goal-scoring chances, and their wastefulness was an obvious irritation to Gavin.
‘The chances we had and didn’t convert were disappointing, especially given we spend most of our practice sessions on the skills of the game,’ he said.
‘It won’t be good enough in Omagh. It was just about good enough today. That’s the disappointing thing.
‘The positive you could take is we kept our composure and kept trying to work a score. We did that, but up in Omagh we have to try and convert them.’
Declan Bonner didn’t try and avoid the areas that settled the game.
‘The goals were big factors in the game, those and kickouts,’ he said, plainly.
It was an honest assessment. ‘We came up to get a result and we knew it was going to be difficult,’ he said. ‘When we had opportunities we didn’t take them and you have to be clinical. Goals win matches and we didn’t take them.’
The contrast with Dublin’s ruthlessness did not need to be highlighted.
‘We spoke to the guys about small margins and when those opportunities come you have to take them.’
He recognised the pressure Shaun Patton was under at kick-out time, and acknowledged that Dublin threatened them on the double here, given the solidity of Stephen Cluxton’s restarts.
‘It’s a learning curve for Shaun. It’s his first year and he had an outstanding Ulster campaign.