"It hasn't been a trend of ours generally," said Gavin of the slow start. "Mayo just came at us and got off to a good start, they're an extremely good team. It is important that the players stick at it and stick to the game-plan which they did and the got their just rewards.

"They got a very good patch in the first half, played some good football and took some good decisions but overall we've still got some work to do."

Mayo boss James Horan was unhappy with the fact that his charges failed to take their goal-scoring chances, which proved the difference between the counties in the end.

"It was a bit of a crazy game. There's probably 12 or 13 of the best goal chances you could see in the game. We probably had six or seven of them and Dublin had six or seven," said Horan afterwards.

"They took two and we didn't. The two we conceded were terrible defending. All that stuff you can fix and work on, but overall Dublin deserved their win. They have a full crew to pick from and they ran away from us in the end."

Despite Mayo's strong start, Dublin quickly responded with two goals from the excellent Paul Mannion and Jason Whelan in a three-minute spell - but Gavin felt they left more behind them.

"They were good moves. (David) Clarke is an excellent goalkeeper and stopped a few of them but it was good to see the goals going in. We only got two, could've got two more as far as I can see. To see the guys creating the chances, that is what we are working on, trying to get that consistency in performance."

Gavin believes James Horan's men will come back stronger with the assistance of a fully fit squad.

"Mayo have been the standard bearers, they have been consistent the last two years, getting to the league final and the All-Ireland final. They have some players to come back, Keith Higgins and the two Morans (Andy and Barry) and (Tom) Cunniffe. I expect them to figure strongly in the back end of the Championship."

Horan hopes the defeat in Mayo's last game before the Championship will give them a boost as they look to defend their Connacht title against Galway.

While he could have recalled a number of key players, a league semi-final was not the time to push them.

"That is great ammunition for us to take away and use over the next couple of weeks as we prepare for the first round of the Championship. (Fitness wise) a lot of them are very close. Some of them, if needed, I could have risked today. Today wasn't the day for that.

"As regards how things go later on in the year, there are so many teams that are so close it's wide open which is a great way for it to be," he concluded.