Jim Gavin described aspects of Dublin's performance in their narrow win over Monaghan as 'sloppy'.

And the Dublin supremo acknowledged that a major improvement will be needed if the Metropolitans are to complete their first three-in-a-row of Allianz Football League title wins at Cork's expense in a fortnight's time. 

"Our core skills which we apply ourselves to in our practice sessions; our hand passing, our tackling were a bit sloppy," he admitted to RTE.

"They're the basics of our game and they let us down. Once that didn't go right for us, we turned the ball over a lot and gave Monaghan a chance to penetrate against us.

"We're trying to give players more game-time and build towards that end. Certainly when you look at our first couple of games in the league we have tried a lot of players, and tried to give them game-time.

"We tried a few new things, some have worked, some haven't and that's part of the growth side that any team wants.

"We understand that if we remain static, if we don't grow, teams will by pass us. There's a challenge in that itself. Some of our performances haven't been up to what we'd like, as in today's performance wasn't what it should have been.

"Somehow we got the result and I won't say we're happy for it, but we're glad for an extra game."

Gavin expects Bernard Brogan and Rory O'Carroll to be fit for the Croke Park decider after they were forced to cry off with "soft tissue injuries" before the throw-in.

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