"He would have been in trouble if he didn't score it. He took it well. We just can't afford to get carried away."

Longford manager Denis Connerton's son Liam came off the bench to score a goal which sent the midlanders on the road to a memorable win over the All-Ireland champions.

"I commend the efforts of the Dublin players, they tried their hardest to get back into the game. They are quite fatigued after the game but Longford played well throughout the whole expanse of the game and full credit to them."

Jim Gavin took his hat off to Connerton and his players.

"We are hoping that it (Higgins' injury) is not anything season-threatening. We will wait for the scan but it is very unlikely that we will see him in the early rounds of the league."

Mayo manager Stephen Rochford is sweating over a knee injury sustained by Keith Higgins in the early stages of their FBD League defeat to Roscommon.

"I've no doubt we've more done but we have to have more done, we're new to the division. They're an established Division 1 team, they can take their time and ease their way into it."

Roscommon joint-manager Kevin McStay wasn't getting carried away following the win over his native county.

"Statistically Derry have been very good defensively in the last few years, but the problem is you can't win games unless you score and we have to address that."

Eight Derry players scored from play against Cavan much to the delight of manager Damian Barton.

"Our ball-handling and decision-making in the first half was very poor. We left ourselves too much to do but were a lot happier with our second half and we've given run-outs to about 36, 37 players in the last few weeks which is a big plus."

Barton's Cavan counterpart Terry Hyland focussed on the positives following their seven-point defeat in the Athletic Grounds.

"It was a competitive outing for us so it was great. Tipp were impressive as well. The running game they play can be hard to defend against, to concede 10 points was a decent return from our backs. We were happy overall."

Eamonn Fitzmaurice declared himself satisfied with Kerry's performance in their McGrath Cup victory over Tipperary.

"The boys did great. They (Kerry) came down with a very strong team, 11 of the All-Ireland-winning panel, and we're down 15 players all the time."

Despite the six point losing margin, Tipp manager Liam Kearns was proud of his players' effort against the Kingdom.

"I'm proud of the way the lads dug out a win after being a man down for a good part of the second half. I'm disappointed though that when we were four points up at half-time, we didn't kick on kill the game. We had chances but didn't turn them into scores."

14-man Meath edged a close local derby against Louth and Mick O'Dowd is planning for an O'Byrne Cup final against Longford.

"We'd feel we left it behind us. It's a pity we didn't line up another game next Sunday."

Louth's shooting let them down against the Royals according to manager Colin Kelly.

"Playing into a strong breeze in the second half it wasn't the best position to be in - a few changes at half-time had to be done. But in fairness they did lift it up in the second half. The prize is the FBD League final. That's next Sunday and we will see how that goes."

Kevin Walsh and Galway overcame a lack-lustre first-half showing against GMIT to book their FBD League final ticket.

"It's always nice to have those kind of players available, and they introduced themselves to the game quite quickly, and I think that made a significant difference."

Mickey Harte introduced the experienced trio of Sean Cavanagh, Mattie Donnelly and Ronan McNamee to telling effect against Fermanagh.

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