Dublin put themselves into tomorrow morning’s All-Ireland senior football championship third round draw with a 1-24 to 0-16 victory over Cavan at a sunny Kingspan Breffni this afternoon.

In a game which saw Dubs boss Ger Brennan returning to the sidelines after serving his 12-week suspension, the sides played out an airtight first-half in which Lee Gannon’s point was the difference  at the break before the visitors pushed on for the win in the second-half.

Niall Scully’s point had moved the capital men into a 0-6 to 0-3 lead in the 17th minute before Cavan got level and then moved ahead with a Paddy Lynch two-pointer some six minutes later.

Con O’Callaghan, who finished with 1-9, restored parity for the Dubs and then nudged them ahead with a free prior to unanswered points from Darragh Lovett, Tiarnan Madden and Lynch flying over Evan Comerford’s crossbar.

Two more O’Callaghan points (one free) and a Gannon effort saw Brennan’s men take in a 0-13 to 0-12 advantage at the half and, after battling well for the opening 35 minutes, Cavan would be limited to just four points after the change of ends.

Gannon doubled the Leinster side’s lead early on in the resumption and they’d pull clear by backing up a brace of Ross McGarry points with scores from Paddy Small and Colm Basquel.

Emmanuel Shehu and Gerry Smith got points back for the hosts, but McGarry, Basquel and Small all raised white flags again to put six between the teams ahead of a Tiarnan Madden free marking the Breffni men’s last score of the afternoon.

The Dubs, meanwhile, had another 1-3 to add to their tally, including an O’Callaghan penalty which hit the roof of the net to seal their progression to Round 3 and Cavan’s elimination.

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