The little general is explaining the secrets of life. Same Tom Lyons, same philosophy and the same result. When Lyons walks, the waters part. The man who promised to bring back the swagger to Dublin is telling it the way it is.

"These things always go in swings and roundabouts and it is no great issue. Meath - I have great admiration for Meath and for the man that manages them - as a man, never mind as a football manager and I know him for a long time now. And I don't take any pleasure in that duel but we do take pleasure as Dublin people in having beaten Meath and that's the pleasure we will take with us for the next three weeks."

But how? After the agony and near misses and searing honesty of the Tom Carr administration, how could it all fall so glowingly for Lyons on his maiden performance in front of the Hill. It's as if they made Croke Park magnificent for this very day.

"Tom Carr and his lads battled very hard over the last four years and we brought it on another stage. Maybe we got the rub of the green today and our second goal was very fortuitous when we needed a score. Even a point would have done us. They had us on the rack - we had a young team out there and they believed and believed and believed and then they hit the wall. But we got there and that will bring us on a lot.

"I would be an unusual guy in that - anyone who knows me, knows me well at this stage - I find pressure energises me. And I try to create that energy into the players. Because pressure can energise you. It shouldn't suffocate you. There's days it will and you can't just press the computer button and say, hey we are going to play today. And like we mightn't kick the ball against Kildare. That's the way life is. And these aren't robots, these men have worked awful hard and we are talking about playing in a Leinster final and using that to energise ourselves."

Across the way, one of Lyons' maverick wild cards, Ray Cosgrove, traces his journey to this day. "I've been knocking around for a while now, this is the third manager I have worked under and just my second championship game so it's about time. I've had a good club career but to play out there in front of 60,000 people was just fantastic."

Twice he buckled Meath with goals that were as direct and bold as the message Lyons keeps hammering home.

"Yeah, the first one I just peeled behind Darren (Fay) and I couldn't believe the space I had when the ball came in - I expected a hand to come from somewhere. And the second, I just played the ball to Alan (Brogan) and he tried for a point. I just decided I'd better keep running in case it dropped short and I just got a hand to it. The game was still in the melting pot at that stage, I think Meath had it back to three and you were beginning to think, 'oh no, not this again'."

Meath depart from the Pale quickly, thoughts of Louth already beginning to present themselves.

"Huge disappointment. We'd have loved to have been in another Leinster final but we came up against a fresh young Dublin team, well prepared and credit where it is due," says Seán Boylan. "They took their chances well and we created but couldn't finish. You only have to look at the way Dublin played, they were marvellous.

"From a Meath perspective, well, I wish they weren't as good as they were but it is going to be some battle now against Kildare. The way we felt at half-time, we were struggling badly but still had time. And we had chances but we couldn't take them and no sour grapes, best team won and that's it. Now we have a Louth team that is improving so I just hope we have the resources and energy."

Evan Kelly emerges from the physio's room elaborating on the same theme. "It will take a couple of hours for this to sink in but we are all on the road long enough to realise that we lost. And Louth will be just dying to get a cut at us. It's going to be hard but hopefully we can pull together."

As he leaves, It occurs to someone that Kelly must have been receiving treatment in the physio room. But he shrugs off talk of wounds.

"Nah," he grins. "Only the ego."