Leinster SFC Quarter-finals/Dublin 1-12 Longford 0-13: Back in the early days of airborne travel a lot of people used to worry about Wilbur Wright. He would reproach them by saying that if they were looking for perfect safety, they would do well "to sit on a fence and watch the birds" but if they wished to learn they'd have to get into a machine and become acquainted with the air and the danger by actual trial.

Wilbur should be Dublin's consolation as they ponder this trip to Longford, which nearly ended with wreckage all over Pearse Park.

At least they got into the air and performed an actual trial. At least they know there are some parts they need to take a spanner to and other parts they need to take a blowtorch to.

For Longford there is the ill-deserved ignominy of the long road to respectability. They will embark on that journey knowing that a little more knowledge or a little more street smarts would have got them a big scalp yesterday.

There were just over 15,000 people in the splendidly appointed confines of Pearse Park at throw-in time yesterday. Perfect pitch, lovely ground, dream weather.

Longford brought the hospitality; Dublin, the majority stakeholders in the attendance, were supposed to bring the atmosphere. We never got more than a chorused muttering of despair from the blue legions.

Dublin began with a few switches in the forward lines, a tactical tendency which would become endemic as the game went on, and players appeared to suffer dizziness from being rotated so vigorously.

Longford, having warmed up for what seemed like three hours, just set out to do what they had to do. An early ball to Brian Kavanagh set the pattern. Kavanagh was first there, drew a foul. Paul Barden popped the free.

On the fifth minute Alan Brogan equalised with a sweet point following a good move down the left wing. Here we go, said the Dubs.

They were to be disappointed. Longford pulled 0-5 to 0-1 ahead with a series of scores which Dublin will wake up sweating about. So rattled were the Dubs that after Bernard McElvaney popped Longford's third point, Stephen Cluxton essayed a quick kick-out and hoofed the ball clear over the sideline.

In this period the Dublin defence saw all sorts of alarming sights.

Longford got their fifth point when Kevin Mulligan went around David Henry as if he hadn't noticed he was there. Barry Cahill was being pulled all over the prairie and Niall O'Shea was being mounted on a spit for roasting.

All three are good players but they seemed mesmerised by their men and instead of playing in front as the good quality ball from the Longford half backs demanded, they reacted only after the Longford forward had bolted.

After 20 minutes Longford were pinching themselves to make sure this was real.

Sure enough there were little intrusions of reality. Conal Keaney, Dublin's best player on the day, scored three points in a row, two from frees, as Dublin closed the gap. Trevor Smullen effected a fine turn and snap shot to put Longford two ahead. Then Dublin got lucky.

The ball hovered above the heads of a few defenders. Every one watched the leather, nobody checked where Mark Vaughan was. The ball was punched in his direction and found him all alone maybe 10 yards out. He finished to the net with some style.

Suddenly Dublin were ahead when they didn't have a right to be and you felt that this was a movie you could guess the plot of.

Dublin, having scored a goal, would settle and score a few more until they were clear enough to showboat. Poor Longford would get eviscerated again and it would all be done to the tasteful chanting of the visiting fans.

Maybe Longford suspected they knew how it would all turn out too because they conceded the next three points before half-time intervened, allowing Luke Dempsey to revive them with smelling salts and the thought that they could still be contenders.

He was right too. In the first half David Barden had cut in from the right wing along the endline and drawn a fine save from Cluxton with his shot on goal. Later he had swivelled and popped the ball wide when a goal looked the easier option.

He was justified in shooting each time but a fisted ball over the bar in either circumstance would ultimately have changed the game.

When business opened for the second half Barden continued making life uncomfortable for young Niall O'Shea and we got a sense we were going to be seeing struggle rather than spectacle when Barden scored the first point of the half at one end and Keaney uncharacteristically put a free wide at the other end.

Keaney in the end saved Dublin. A little luck too. Mossy Quinn was called ashore after 44 minutes of frustration and after that Keaney scored four points from frees out of the hand.

He's quite good at these from the right side and all four awards came in his favourite position.

Longford never got the twist of luck they needed. They consistently tortured the Dublin full-back line, they fared well at midfield and they defended robustly.

In the closing minutes you could smell the fear coming off Dublin.

Peter Foy, Barden (again) James Martin and Brian Kavanagh scored four points without replay to bring the margin to just a couple of points before Keaney and Kavanagh swapped frees in injury time.

"Desperately disappointed but proud of how we played," said Dempsey afterwards when the dust had settled.

Most of those leaving the ground shared some sense of disappointment.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; N O'Shea, B Cahill, D Henry; P Casey, C Goggins, P Griffin; S Ryan, C Whelan; K Bonner (0-1), B Cullen (0-1), A Brogan (0-1); T Quinn, C Keaney (0-8, six frees), M Vaughan (1-0). Subs: P Andrews for Cahill (half-time), J Sherlock for Quinn (44 mins), R Cosgrove for Ryan (59 mins), D Lally (0-1) for Bonner (59 mins).

LONGFORD: D Sheridan (capt); D Brady, N Farrell, E Ledwith; C Confrey, A O'Connor, D Reilly; B McElvaney (0-1), L Keenan; P Berry (0-1), P Barden (0-3 frees), T Smullen (0-1); D Barden (0-2), K Mulligan (0-1), B Kavanagh (0-2, frees). Subs: S Mulligan for E Ledwith (35 mins), P Foy (0-1) for Berry (55 mins), J Martin (0-1) for Mulligan (57 mins), P Dowd for Smullen (59 mins).

Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan).