At that stage the momentum appeared to be Mayo’s but three quick-fire points from John Small, Rock (free) and Connolly pushed Dublin clear and it looked to be enough with only two minutes of normal time to play.
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The second three-pointer, though, did come in the 22nd minute when a Connolly free into Rock was touched past Clarke by a backtracking Colm Boyle after Rock had spilt the ball. A freaky scoreboard read 2-0 to 0-3 with a Dublin player still to score.
Dublin couldn’t find a score from their players for 25 minutes, but they still had two goals on the scoreline.
After the break Mayo raced out of the blocks once again and rattled over the first five points from Andy Moran, Patrick Durcan and a trio of frees from O’Connor to leave the sides level after 44 minutes.
While things are neck and neck, most are giving Mayo more than just a fighting chance.
Though it would be the Connaughtmen that would quickly level once more as Andy Moran and Alan Dillon split the posts.
Jason Doherty of Mayo and Cian O’Sullivan and Brian Fenton of Dublin involved in a coming together during today’s All-Ireland final. “We’ll reassess and we’ll go at it again”, added the Dubs boss.
“We knew there was only going to be the bounce of a ball in it, which there was”. Mayo worked it back up the field and the man you would have wanted to have the ball at the crunch time and he nailed it, showing the composure and leadership you want in pressure situations and Mayo lived to fight and another day. Cillian O’Connor (free) had it back to two before Donal Vaughan pared another one back, and that man O’Connor kept the dream alive with the equaliser.
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Ahead of the Kerry game, Gavin named Denis Bastick and Paul Mannion in his starting fifteen but just before throw-in it was announced that Michael Darragh Macauley and Kevin McManamon would start instead. O’Connor, J. Doherty, K. McLoughlin; A. Moran, A. O’Shea, C. O’Connor (c).
