Dublin 4-25 Longford 0-10

Holders Dublin sent out a serious statement of their Championship intentions with a 27-point Leinster SFC demolition of Longford at Croke Park.

The four-in-a-row provincial champions were at their ease throughout with goals from big guns Diarmuid Connolly, Paul Flynn, Dean Rock and Bernard Brogan.

Longford were admittedly without two key forwards who had provided the bulk of their scores in recent championship campaigns; Paul Barden and Sean McCormack.

But even with them they may have struggled to live with a firmly focused Dublin side that oozed class and efficiency in front of 33,544 at Croke Park.

Brogan claimed an impressive 1-06 tally before being replaced by Alan Brogan, his first competitive action since last year's All-Ireland semi-final.

Rock, Kevin McManamon and Flynn were terrific in attack too as the Allianz league champions cruised to a 28 June semi-final clash with Laois or Kildare.

Giant underdogs Longford did approach the contest buoyed by promotion to Division 3 and a morale boosting come from behind first-round win over Offaly.

But as early as the fourth minute it was apparent they were almost certain to lose.

That was when Connolly raced onto a clever pop pass from Ciaran Kilkenny and angled a low shot to the bottom right corner of Longford's net.

It put Dublin 1-3 to 0-00 clear and they would go on to put 1-05 on the board before Longford eventually scored a point through Rory Connor.

It did at least kick-start Longford and two more from the lively Connor gave them some heart.

Brian Kavanagh, an AIB All-Ireland club medallist with Dublin side Kilmacud Crokes, converted two frees for Longford also, one of which he won himself.

But they had to work so hard for each score compared to the ease with which Dublin found theirs.

Dublin had eight different scorers in the opening half with a second goal arriving through Flynn after 28 minutes.

Connolly fed McManamon who did well to offload the ball while being ankle tripped - an offence that led to Longford's Kevin Diffley being black-carded - and Flynn applied a blasted finish to the roof of the net.

Bernard Brogan and Rock gave Longford's defence all sorts of problems and contributed eight first-half points between them, seven of those coming from play.

The only downside to Dublin's 2-14 to 0-08 interval advantage was that they'd conceded more than they would have hoped for.

They even managed to rectify that issue in the second-half when they held Longford to just two points, both Kavanagh frees.

It was a virtual procession from Jim Gavin's Dubs who found willing runners all over the field.

Rock palmed in their third goal after 51 minutes and just seconds later Brogan blasted in a low finish after good work by debutant Brian Fenton and Michael Darragh Macauley.

Gavin ran in his full allocation of subs with Tomas Brady, Paddy Andrews and Eric Lowndes all getting on the score sheet late on.

Dublin: S Cluxton, J Cooper, David Byrne, P McMahon (0-01), J Small, D Daly, J McCaffrey, B Fenton (0-01), D Bastick, P Flynn (1-03), C Kilkenny (0-03), D Connolly (1-00), K McManamon (0-02), D Rock (1-06, 0-02f, 0-02 45), B Brogan (1-06).

Subs: M Fitzsimons for McMahon, T Brady (0-01) for Connolly, MD Macauley for Bastick, P Andrews (0-01) for Flynn, E Lowndes (0-01) for Cooper, A Brogan for B Brogan.

Longford: P Collum (0-01, 0-01 45), D Brady, B Gilleran, C Farrelly, D Masterson, B O'Farrell, CP Smyth, M Quinn, K Diffley, P Foy, R McEntire, R McNerney, R Connor (0-03), B Kavanagh (0-05, 0-04f), B McKeon.

Subs: L Connerton (0-01) for McKeon, D Reynolds for Diffley (BC), A Rowan for Smyth, P Gill for Connor, F Battrim for Masterson, E Williams for McNerney.

Referee: Conor Lane (Cork).