THE gospel according to Gilroy has finally delivered some good news to the poor huddled masses on Hill 16.

Having appeared lost through the first half of summer, Dublin have found themselves again. They look a team, with deficiencies and limitations and kinks for sure, but a team nonetheless. Beating Armagh has seen to that.

Who knows, it may even convince the floating fans who have deserted en masse for this ‘back door' campaign – only 25,947 turned up for Saturday's double-header.

It remains to be seen whether this occasionally fraught but fully merited three-point victory offers a roadmap to redemption or merely a place in round four of the qualifiers ... but for the first time in four SFC outings, we had the first green shoots of recovery, the first signs that the manager's painful rebuilding plan is starting to take shape.

Dublin's relentless work ethic was the most striking feature of this, the most significant championship win over non-Leinster opposition since the salad days of '95.

TURNOVERS

We estimate that five of their 14 points could be retraced directly back to turnovers via tackle or interception.

Now, that stat tells you something about Armagh's sinful propensity for inviting such turnovers in the first place – but it's also indicative of Dublin's commitment to the cause, at either end of the pitch.

The other key element of this victory was the manner of its achievement. Dublin were 0-6 to 0-2 adrift after an opening half-hour where a combination of errant shooting and their nowobligatory over-reliance on Bernard Brogan left you wondering if a demoralising end to a dismal campaign beckoned. What happened?

Over the ensuing 20 minutes, they hit eight of the next nine points – drawing level at the midpoint, then surging three clear after 50.

This purple patch offered positive contrast to what happened against Tipperary a week earlier, when Dublin went into a collective shell either side of the break in response to Barry Grogan's goal from nowhere.

Typically, the Dubs didn't make it easy for themselves over the home straight: first the aforementioned three-point cushion disappeared, and then only Philly McMahon's last-ditch goal-line clearance from Brian Mallon prevented them falling two points adrift after 62 minutes.

As skipper David Henry alluded to afterwards, McMahon could have been drawn to the unmarked Mallon (picked out by Jamie Clarke after a Michael Fitzsimons fumble) but instead he had the instant presence of mind to make a beeline for goal.

The winning and losing of the game? Perhaps. But Dublin deserved their slice of good fortune.

“The lads probably felt that their character has been questioned quite a bit over the last six weeks,” Pat Gilroy later reflected.

“I suppose nobody really likes that. I have to say that as a group of players and as a panel – older and younger fellas – the attitude has just been phenomenal all through the year. Anything that we've asked of them, they've done. And you don't get that kind of a performance unless you've done the work off the field.”

On sober reflection, the Dublin boss will know that Armagh were a shadow of the team that inflicted Croke Park trauma on some of his elder Sky Blue statesmen in 2002 and 2003.

Not alone were they overtly defensive in mindset, their ponderous attempts to build from the back played into Dublin hands.

Armagh playing just two men inside hardly constituted a state secret, but this too acted as a further boon to Sky Blue ambitions.

McMahon mostly stayed in situ, sweeping to generally solid effect, even beyond his goal-line heroics. And on one of his few ventures forward, he kicked a swashbuckling 50th-minute point.

ROUSING

Even more significantly, Rory O'Carroll banished the painful memories of Meath and Wexford with a rousing return to form against the ultimate yardstick, Steven McDonnell.

The Armagh talisman was limited to a brace from play: the first an audacious effort from the wing where the limpet-like O'Carroll was blameless, the second a fisted effort that was borderline square ball.

To compound Armagh's travails, McDonnell has never been the most reliable long-range free-taker and he tallied four wides – two ‘45s' and two frees from similar distance.

In another season – one where Ronan Clarke was fighting fit – Armagh could perhaps survive on such slender ‘Stevie Mac' rations.

Not here, especially as his young sidekick Jamie Clarke was confined to a point. At the other end, mind you, Dublin have problems of their own.

The application of all six starting forwards could not be questioned but their finishing acumen certainly can be.

One statistic leaps from the scrawled match programme: Bernard Brogan amassed nine points (five from play off a surprisingly harassed Andy Mallon) while his five attacking comrades didn't score even once.

What would happen if Brogan succumbed to injury or a sudden loss of form? A scary thought. Part of the problem is that a starting half-forward line of Bryan Cullen, David Henry and Niall Corkery is not liable to contribute much in the way of scores.

The recalled Cullen was full of zeal while Henry passed sharply in a lively opening but fluffed a couple of shots.

EFFERVESCENT

Meanwhile, the maligned Corkery twice burst into potential goalscoring positions but couldn't deliver the end product, albeit he was only denied a third-quarter goal through the combined efforts of Paul Hearty and Ciaran McKeever.

On Saturday, Alan Brogan started closer to goal but his typically effervescent approach play (we counted four assists) wasn't matched by his own finishing (three wides and another dropped short).

For Eoghan O'Gara, meanwhile, it was a case of promising full debut followed by difficult second album. More positively, O'Gara's half-time replacement – Kevin McManamon – recovered from an uncertain start to reassert his first-team claims by scoring a point, setting up another and drawing two converted frees.

Indeed, all five subs offered something positive in their cameos and it was encouraging to see the fit-again Darren Magee and Paddy Andrews see action.

Magee offers a fourth dimension at midfield, where Dublin no longer appear so bereft in the post Whelan/ Ryan era.

That is primarily because of Michael Darragh Macauley, the highfielding, hard-tackling, run-all-day hero who has endeared himself to the Hill.

On Saturday, though, we also had flickering portents of some better form from Ross McConnell, while Eamonn Fennell is still good for a point, even coming off the bench and despite his ongoing hip problem.

All told, the Dublin bench chipped in with three points – none more vital than Paul Flynn's 64th minute effort to restore a two-point cushion, soon after Mallon's near-miss at the other end.

STRETCHED

The genesis of that Flynn point? Bernard Brogan – the new, improved, ‘every forward is a defender' version.

He stretched to divert Brendan Donaghy's attempted pass back into Dublin hands: four passes later, the point followed. Small things, but they all add up.

“We're no world beaters and we know that,” Gilroy surmised.

“This year is all about getting performances like that consistently in the championship. If we could get that now for the rest of the championship I'd be happy – wherever it takes us, well who knows?”