Seán Moranhears from both camps, as Pat Gilroy admits Dublin were not sure if they had enough in their armoury this year

At this stage last year, Dublin manager Pat Gilroy coined one of the season’s more memorable phrases, describing his team as “startled earwigs” in the aftermath of the Kerry onslaught.

On Saturday he was in the happy position of being asked to explain something more positive, the defeat of three-times All-Ireland winners Tyrone.

“As I said it during the week that you never know what could happen if an underdog can get a performance – and that is what happened today,” he said. “We got the performance and came out the right side of it.

“As a group we see ourselves in bonus territory now. Maybe beating one of these teams, we were not sure if we had enough in our armoury this year to do that but we certainly expected to be closing the gap and it took us over the line today.

“Maybe some of the shooting by Tyrone in the second half helped us, but we are just delighted to have another couple of weeks of training.

“It wouldn’t have been our expectation that we would beat one of the top three this year. That’s being honest, we thought that there would still be a bit of a gap because there were so many new guys. We expected that performance and to be making progress and closing the gap. You never know now, we are in the semi-final and we will have to keep having a go at it.”

Reflecting on the match, captain David Henry talked about the 12-month transformation from less useful members of the insect kingdom into worker ants. “There’s nothing scientific about it. We’ve just worked for each other. I suppose when you look at our team this year, that’s the key.

“We kept our composure, particularly at the back. We tried to shut things down as best we could and kept things fairly tight. On other days panic stations might have set in and you might start giving away frees or losing shape but we kept to our plan and it worked for us.”

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, who confirmed he would be remaining on for a ninth year in charge, paid tribute to Dublin’s more clinical finishing.

“It was two teams working hard and making life hard for each other and one team that little bit more efficient around the goal than the other. That’s probably the bottom line. You can’t fault our players for how hard they worked and when you create as many chances as we did you mostly win games.

“It didn’t happen today. You could say it was poor finishing but I would say it was also the amount of pressure put on by the opposition.”

He also commended Gilroy’s team and tactical overhaul, although again expressing his unhappiness with the lack of second chances for provincial champions, a status that has not insulated Harte’s team from disappointing championship exits three times in four seasons.

Gilroy said the early setbacks in Leinster hadn’t caused him to rethink the changes.

“No. I was very confident that what we were doing was the right thing for Dublin. We had the right bunch and we had enough evidence to believe that this was the right thing to do for us and today, as I say, has brought us into bonus territory and we should probably make the most of it now.”

Top-scorer Bernard Brogan said the league win against the same opponents in Omagh in April had been a help to Dublin.

“It was huge. It showed that if you put the work in you can beat the big teams. Beating Kerry earlier on in the league was huge as well. It showed we can turn them over. Tyrone have been the benchmark of the team game and working hard and we tried to implement that in our game today.”

Asked how hard, Brogan was unequivocal. “Personally I could hardly run in the last five minutes. I was absolutely knackered.”