With the clock rolling at 76 minutes and Dublin a point ahead, the ball went out off a Mayo toe under the Hogan Stand. Ciarán Kilkenny went over to collect it, but by the time he turned around to look to play it short, Diarmuid Connolly had all but tackled him to the ground. Kilkenny wanted to play a short one and keep possession but Connolly was having none of it.

The shot went wide and Mayo saved the day from the kickout, but it was easy enough to forgive Connolly his indulgence. For one of the only times all day he had a chance to shoot at the posts without Lee Keegan velcroed to his side.

It summed up the sort of day the Dublin forwards had. Couldn’t do right for doing wrong. We looked at this game from a thousand different angles in the build-up and not once did it occur to anyone that the Mayo forwards would outscore the Dublin ones.

Or that the return from Bernard Brogan, Kevin McManamon, Paul Flynn and Ciarán Kilkenny would be zero points. Mad stuff.

A Dublin team malfunctioning as an attacking unit hasn’t been seen around these parts since the Celtic Tiger was in full cry. Even accounting for the rain and the underfoot conditions, even giving full credit to the Mayo defence, this was a collective stinker. Including substitutes, nine Dublin forwards took 22 shots at the posts and returned a meagre 0-7.

Black carded

Exempt from all criticism must be Paddy Andrews, who came off the bench 10 minutes before half time when James McCarthy was black carded and kicked two splendid points into the Canal End, one from either wing. Mayo shackled him better in the second half, yet his chance of a start in the replay must have sky-rocketed.

Paul Mannion, pacy and dangerous in possession when he came on, must be in with a shout as well.

Who will he replace? Take your pick.

Dean Rock had a terrible day, kicking four wides and dropping two short. Normally such a done deal from placed balls, he missed three frees and a 45. To his enduring credit, he nailed a fine score in the 52nd minute to help stop the bleeding after Mayo had come out and scored the first five points of the second half. But he must be under pressure now.

And what of Brogan? Dublin’s leading scorer (either jointly or alone) in each of their three All-Ireland finals, he was anonymous here. His main contribution was to toe-poke the ball goalwards en route to Kevin McLoughlin’s own goal but otherwise he was silenced by Brendan Harrison. He took two shots at the posts – one went wide, one dropped on the 20-metre line.

Flynn made little impression. McManamon was the first man called ashore. Kilkenny had to do a stint at wing-back after McCarthy walked. Dublin’s best performers in attack were runners from deep – Brian Fenton in the first half, John Small in the second.

Connolly and Keegan essentially reduced this to a 28-man game, alkali to the other’s acid all afternoon. Connolly was reduced to three shots in total – that sideline ball at the end, a first half-effort that was blocked by Seamie O’Shea and a 69th-minute point from a botched David Clarke kickout. Mayo would have happily taken that beforehand.

The own goals kept Dublin in the game. Mayo reacted well to both of them, scoring the next point each time. And squeezing ever tighter on the Dublin forwards. “There is going to be setbacks,” said Keegan afterwards. “When you’re playing a team of the quality of Dublin there are going to be setbacks regardless of how well you’re going or not going.

Huge positive

“The goals were what they were, but we had a very good start to the first half and we held them scoreless points-wise for 20 minutes or so, so that’s a huge positive for us.

“The Dublin forward line is built up to be one of the best there is out there, and I thought we did well as a unit and, look, in the second half we only conceded four [it was actually five] points. The stats are pretty good on our behalf but it’s not the result we wanted.”

Maybe not but as a defensive unit their day couldn’t have worked out much better.

For the Dublin forwards it couldn’t have been any worse.