Kevin McStay complimented Dublin on their devastating second-half performance as they brought the curtain down on his first season as Mayo manager.
Having trailed by the minimum after an even first half, Mayo were stunned after the restart as Dublin hit an unanswered 1-04 to take control of their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final.
Colm Basquel scored his second goal after a defensive error by Sam Callinan, and Eoghan McLaughlin then missed a sitter down the other end as Mayo's slim comeback hopes quickly deteriorated.
Dublin never relented as they cantered to a 2-17 to 0-11 victory, setting up an All-Ireland semi-final date with Monaghan, and a magnanimous McStay had few complaints with the final score.
He told RTÉ Sport: "In the end it's a big gap, but at half-time it felt we were absolutely where we thought it would be, one up or one down. We got ourselves into a really nice position and had our chances.
"The goal just after half-time, we gave one away that we’d be a bit unhappy with, and then at the other end we missed one.
"That was a big swing but you couldn’t take anything away from Dublin. They found their championship form in a big way today and we suffered at their hands.
"They were incredibly accurate there for a period, I didn’t think they were going to miss no matter where they fired from in the second half. Well done to Dublin, they haven’t gone away."
Dublin had the advantage of an extra week’s break heading into the All-Ireland quarter-finals after topping their group, while Mayo were faced with a seven-day turnaround after beating neighbours Galway in the preliminary quarter-finals.
McStay offered no excuses, though.
"Up to half-time we had plenty of energy, we were flying it, and we in great form and shape at half-time," he said.
"Just small things went against us in terms of the chances and then Dublin went on a really hot streak and never let up. They really executed some great scores.
"They’re a very fine team, no question."
McStay’s debut campaign as Mayo boss was a rollercoaster of highs and lows.
They won a league title, ended Kerry’s 39-match unbeaten record in Killarney and beat Galway in Salthill, but they also suffered a poor defeat at home to Roscommon in the Connacht Championship and missed out on automatic qualification for the All-Ireland quarter-finals after losing to Cork in their final group match.
"We got a tough lesson today but I’ve to look at this in the overall," said McStay. "It hasn’t been a bad season for us. We’ll take plenty of lessons from it.
"We had three or four young players in our backline. This will be a great day out for them when they look back at it in 10 years. They’ll learn an awful lot from it.
"That’s the way we have to look at it. We’re here for a longer haul than just having a crack in one single season. We’ll go back, rest, meet and see what the overall picture is.
"In an overall sense, not a bad year for us but today it ends disappointingly."
