ALL-IRELAND SFC QUARTER-FINAL Dublin 1-15 Tyrone 0-13:ON ONE of those exhilarating afternoons when the championship goes through the looking glass, Dublin – inspired by Bernard Brogan's most significant day's marksmanship in the championship (nine points, four from play and no wides) – rounded off a day for the underdog at Croke Park by out-lasting Ulster champions Tyrone in Saturday's second GAA All-Ireland football quarter-final.

That bare description may more or less tally with Tyrone’s recollection but it’s far too monochrome a representation of how the winners must feel about the first surprise they’ve sprung on front-rank opposition since beating Meath eight summers ago and having suffered a litany of humiliation in the meantime.

To recap: manager Pat Gilroy sifted through the ashes of last year’s horror show against Kerry and came to the conclusion that for all the county’s provincial dominance, Dublin needed to go back to the drawing board if they were going to compete with the best teams.

His painstakingly devised defence-oriented system, emphasising work rate, cover and fast-breaking counter-attack, trialled well during the league but had fallen apart at the onset of the championship. The voyage through the qualifiers was generally seen as holding the promise of only partial redemption.

Gilroy himself admitted afterwards that beating a top-three county hadn’t formed part of management’s expectations for this season. A work in progress that would be competitive was the measured hope.

There were many tributaries flowing into this triumph in front of an attendance of 62,749.

Dublin’s outsider status released the intense and unreasonable pressure under which they had laboured against Kerry and Tyrone in the previous two years.

The heavy industry of the team tactics gave players a focus and the match unfolded from there. And without being ungracious it’s fair to say the Ulster heavyweights didn’t have a good day at the office, frittering away chances (17 wides) and uncharacteristically reluctant to go for Dublin’s throat when the opportunity presented itself in the third quarter.

But the winners made their own luck. Improving sections of the team continued on their upwards trajectory. The full-back line held steady, although Michael Fitzsimons was under the cosh from Owen Mulligan, the best of the opposing forwards who maintained his customary good form against Dublin, hitting three points from play.

Ross O’Carroll again played well on a big name, although Seán Cavanagh’s form to date has been fitful and his shooting was off-kilter, with four second-half wides. Philip McMahon once more enjoyed the freedom of marking a deep lying opponent, as Joe McMahon was situated in front of his full backs at the beginning.

Centrefield hasn’t been the most productive sector for the Ulster champions and they went short with all of their kick-outs, guaranteeing possession but allowing Dublin plenty of time to funnel back in defence as well as obliging themselves to ferry ball the length of the field.

Dublin’s restarts, superbly marshalled by Stephen Cluxton who gave an excellent display in goal, were notably more ambitious and both Ross McConnell and Michael Dara Macauley maintained the momentum of recent weeks with whole-hearted and productive performances.

There were certain requirements that had to be met for Dublin to spring the surprise.

Most conspicuously they needed a good start to distinguish this quarter-final from the previous two years: no repeat of the squandermania that ominously pointed to the team’s imminent travail in the quarter-final against Tyrone in 2008 and no calamitous concession of the early scores that had marked Kerry as certain winners within a minute of the throw-in 12 months ago.

On the first point, finishing was clinically accurate – for most of the first half just one wide and only two by the interval. Secondly, the defence was hard working and eager, if slightly undermined by a tendency to commit graphic fouls in front of both referee and the posts.

Nonetheless by the 22nd minute the score board had stretched to an encouraging 0-6 to 0-2 lead, mostly provided by Bernard Brogan’s free taking but also featuring well-taken points from Bryan Cullen and McMahon as well as goalkeeper Cluxton’s fifth 45 of the campaign.

The rest of the half put the match back in the hazard. Tyrone began to find their rhythm and pressurised Dublin.

Frees were converted, Mulligan pointed from play and Philip Jordan, the best of Tyrone’s defenders, got up for the first of two scores.

The pendulum was swinging and alarmingly, Dublin looked already tired, only half-heartedly chasing defensive breaks, offering poor support to isolated forwards and showing deficiencies in the mental speed necessary to compete with Tyrone.

Niall Corkery soloed into the thickets of the defensive cover and was dispossessed, Macauley was harassed into giving away ball and gaps opened up at the back.

In those 13 minutes before the break the Ulster champions outscored Dublin by 0-6 to 0-1 to lead by one at half-time.

There should have been goals as well. Martin Penrose was halted under a high ball, isolated one-on-one, when some helpful citizen on the Hill blew the whistle they’d been tooting all through the match. Penrose stopped, as if blinded by the sun, and the chance was lost.

Just before the break, the same player broke through and hit a nice shot above Cluxton but saw it come back off the frame and Barry Cahill put in a great block on a follow-up for a point by Cavanagh.

Cahill was replaced for the second half by the returning Cian O’Sullivan, who made a very useful comeback from two months of hamstring injury, using his pace and composure to tighten the defence.

Nonetheless Tyrone stretched the lead to two, 0-10 to 0-8, but with the match effectively at their mercy, couldn’t convert a sequence of chances.

Stephen O’Neill had been brought on at half-time but was only a shadow of his best and clearly not fully recovered from a heel injury that has kept him out in recent weeks.

Emboldened by the reprieve and still being in the match, Dublin ran off their own sequence of points. Bernard Brogan, twice from play, and brother Alan (subsequently replaced for a 10-minute breather) nudged them ahead and it was becoming obvious that this time Gilroy’s team would be around until the final whistle.

Again Tyrone stuttered with scoring opportunities. O’Neill, Cavanagh and Brian McGuigan all shot wide but Dublin looked as if they were inviting their opponents on and eventually the equaliser arrived – a wonderful, fast-hands exchange between Cavanagh, McMenamin, McGuigan and finally Mulligan.

Within a minute, however, the hammer fell on the gavel and it was in Dublin’s favour. Ger Brennan, a solid display behind him, pumped the ball into replacement Paul Flynn, whose shot came off the posts for O’Gara to take the rebound and ram home his third goal in three matches.

The rangy Templeogue-Synge Street full forward had battled away for the afternoon, giving Justin McMahon plenty of problems but also exercising some poor on-ball decisions – over hitting a hand pass to Bernard Brogan in the first half, taking on unlikely shots and on one occasion ignoring players inside.

Yet his willingness eventually paid off with the match’s winning score. The rest was Dublin exhilaratingly exploiting space as Tyrone desperately pressed. The final score went to Macauley, used latterly as a corner forward to give him some respite, cutting for a fisted point and raising a fist in triumph.

The Hill almost didn’t know what to think.