A crowd of 16,331 watched Dublin ease to a 0-18 to 0-11 victory over Cavan at sunny Breffni Park.

Bidding for a fifth successive national football league title, Jim Gavin's swaggering side brought their unbeaten league-and-championship sequence to a remarkable 30 matches as they put away Mattie McGleenan's top-flight newcomers with a minimum of fuss. They could even afford the luxury of twelve wides.

Jack McCaffrey returned to the starting team after missing last summer's championship, while newcomer Niall Scully delivered a Man of the Match display as he carried his impressive O'Byrne Cup form into the Spring.

With both teams wearing their alternative colours to avoid what might have been the only real clash of the day, a run of five successive scores between the 20^th and 29^th minutes was instrumental in handing the winners a 0-10 to 0-7 half-time lead. The gap could have been greater had not James Farrelly advanced bravely to smother a Dean Rock goal effort.

Throw-in was held up for 20 minutes due to heavy traffic resulting from the massive crowd that flocked to Breffni Park to see the hometown heroes take on the all-conquering holders. Late alterations to the winners' starting XV saw McCaffrey, Scully and Jason Whelan all in from the off, but it was the hosts who pounced for the opening score via Seanie Johnston inside the first 30 seconds.

Kevin McManamon replied on three minutes but wing back John McCutcheon raided forward immediately to restore the border county's advantage. Dean Rock and Johnston traded frees of contrasting difficulties and the Dubs led for the first time on 14 minutes following scores from Michael Darragh MacAuley and Rock (free).

Niall McDermott's free tied the scores up for the fourth time and an exquisite Johnston strike from an unforgiving angle edged the Breffni boys back in front only for the All-Ireland champions to respond via Whelan, Ciaran Kilkenny and Scully as a two-point gap appeared for the first time.

McCaffrey and Rock made it five-in-a-row but the hosts refused to roll over and struck back with scores from Gerard Smith and McDermott (free) before yet another exquisite Rock free from the deck assured the favourites of a three-point interval advantage.

Rock (free) and Smith swapped the first two points of the second half before James McCarthy made it 0-12 to 0-8 after 42 minutes. Rock and Scully stretched the gap to six and a Kilkenny effort was dubiously waved wide in between.

A Johnston free into the wind got the Breffni County back amongst the scores and substitute Conor Madden pointed on 50 minutes only for Rock to reply - 0-15 to 0-10 at the three-quarters stage. McCarthy took a nice point off his left from a tight angle in the 61^st minute and Johnston made amends for a missed free with a point from play.

Brian Fenton stoked over a fine point in the first of four added minutes and Cormac Costello completed the scoring for the day with a late free. Business as usual for Dublin and there's no sign of this success story coming to an end any time soon.

Dublin - S Cluxton; M Fitzsimons, P McMahon, J McCaffrey; J McCarthy (0-2), J Small, E Lowndes; B Fenton (0-1), M D Macauley (0-1); C Kilkenny (0-1), K McManamon (0-1), P Mannion; D Rock (0-8, 6f), N Scully (0-2), J Whelan (0-1). Subs: C Costello (0-1f) for K McManamon, C Basquel for J Whelan, E O'Gara for P Mannion, C Reddin for M D Macauley, C McHugh for D Rock.

Cavan - J Farrelly; F Reilly, P Faulkner, K Brady; M Reilly, C Moynagh, J McCutcheon (0-1); K Clarke, R Dunne; C Brady, D McVeety, G Smith (0-2); N Clerkin, N McDermott (0-2f), S Johnston (0-5, 2f). Subs: P O'Connor for N McDermott, S Murray for J McCutcheon, G McKiernan for R Dunne, C Madden (0-1) for C Moynagh, N McKiernan for N Clerkin, S O'Rourke for C Madden.

Referee - P O'Sullivan.

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