Dublin's hasn't been the most garrulous dressing-room this championship but yesterday there were extenuating reasons. In fact if anything it was a wonder that Paul Caffrey appeared at all to conduct his first media conference as manager, albeit temporarily. Seán Moran reports

The news that Tommy Lyons had been hospitalised took his Dublin team nearly as much by surprise as it did the large attendance at Croke Park yesterday. But the players and mentors had had a session on Sunday night and Caffrey found himself prowling the sideline with the Bainisteor bib. It was nearly a memorable debut.

"I was disappointed. We felt we were in with a great chance of winning it but didn't have the composure in the last four or five minutes and great credit to Donegal, they kept plugging at it and took the chances.

"We panicked a little bit and fluffed the chances we had but it was awful hot out there so you can't really blame players.

"I didn't feel we had them but I was hoping that we had enough in the tank to hold them out.

"We had two half chances afterwards and I felt if we went four points up that that would have been the end of it but we never got the insurance point."

Two-goal Ray Cosgrove gave his reaction to the mixed afternoon. But his scoring returns continue to stand out. Yesterday saw his tally rise to five goals in three matches.

"They seem to be going in. I'm in the right place at the right time. Somebody up there is looking down on me. The first one I remember coming high with Eamonn Doherty and I turned and got inside, 10 or 15 yards out and pulled the trigger. Blake went to the wrong side.

"The second one. Jason (Sherlock) put it on a plate, couldn't miss it. Just sidefoot it past the 'keeper.

"You're never too sure out there what sort of time is left. I thought after going three points up that we could just finish it off. Especially in that heat, I thought they'd run themselves into the ground.

"If we'd got another score that would have killed it off. But it never came."

Adrian Sweeney's equalising point was a cause of more personal disappointment for Caffrey.

"I see my good wife here. I'm supposed to be flying out to Spain at five o'clock tomorrow morning so I'll have three tearful kids to look at but we'll see how that goes. There'll be negotiations on that one."

Asked about the performance of referee Gerry Kinneavy, who made a number of dubious calls, Caffrey was diplomatic but made a Freudian slip when thinking of the last-minute lineball call that went, apparently incorrectly, against Alan Brogan.

"I don't want to comment on Séamus Prior. Not Séamus Prior. He was the linesman. I don't want to comment on the referee. He has a job to do."