Dublin lay down early season marker to see off Derry

It was a first Derry defeat of the Mickey Harte era as Dublin ended the hosts perfect Division One league record with a five point victory in front of 13,265 in Celtic Park on Saturday night.

Cormac Costello's second half goal proved the crucial score in a game in which the All Ireland champions always held a measure of control against a Derry side showing seven changes from the team that defeated Monaghan last time out.

Four wins from their opening four games had provided Harte with the breathing space to rotate and he took the opportunity as Ethan Doherty, Padraig McGrogan, Eoin McEvoy, Niall Loughlin and Paul Cassidy dropped to the bench while neither Conor Glass nor Conor Doherty was involved in the match-day squad.

In came Donncha Gilmore and Eunan Mulholland for a first league start while there were also places for Emmet Bradley, Declan Cassidy, Niall Toner and Cormac Murphy,with Shea Downey making a first start since the last year's Division Two trip to Cork.

That was in contrast to Dublin's solitary change as Brian Howard came into team that had dismantled Kerry last and the changes handed the Dubs an initiative they took full advantage of.

The varying approaches were reflective of need and Dublin's was certainly the greater in a division where, before throw-in, only two points separated the second place from bottom. Indeed that fact was reflected in an opening half Dessie Farrell's men dominated, but Derry's persistence ensured the would go into the break with only a two point advantage.

Indeed the game hinged on two incident in two second half minutes. Trailing by three after an improved start to the second half, Derry turned Dublin over deep inside their own half, Gilmore releasing Shane McGuigan to try an audacious