Aidan O'Shea said two "freakish" goals rocked Mayo on their heels in a topsy-turvy All-Ireland final, but said their gutsy fightback against Dublin proved there's nothing between the two sides.
Cillian O'Connor boomed over a 77th-minute leveller to stop Jim Gavin's men retaining Sam Maguire for the first time since 1977.
They'll do it all again on Saturday, 1 October, but O'Shea will return to Croke Park with no fears.
"To be honest with you, I thought we were in control for long stretches and came in at half-time after having a lot more attacks," he told RTÉ Sport.
"Obviously two kind of freakish goals got early on really kind of set us back. It was the same thing last year where we were down and really came back after half-time and the runners from deep got us right back into the game.
I think that proves there is no massive gulf between anyone in this country
"We know there’s not much between the two teams. We’ve had some good battles over the last couple of years and we didn’t buy into the fact we were rank outsiders.
"We knew we had a right chance. We’re a bit disappointed we didn’t nick the result at the end but we’ll be back in two weeks' time to get going again."
A greasy pitch on an overcast afternoon made a game riddled with errors.
Dublin led by 2-04 to 0-05 at half-time after two bizarre own goals undermined a strong Mayo performance.
Kevin McLoughlin diverted the ball into his own net before Colm Boyle's wayward boot did likewise, but Steophen Rochford's men refused to throw in the towel - and O'Shea insists they'll be ready to give it another huge crack in a fortnight.
"Conditions were tough, both teams went at it," he said. "I think it was a good spectacle for the conditions out there.
"We were obviously disappointed in the first half. We let a few chances go by in front of the Hill. But in the second half the boys really stepped up coming towards the goal.
"We definitely improved and got some scores and we really put them on the rack for a few minutes.
"We have been written off. I think that proves there is no massive gulf between anyone in this country so we’ll be ready for the replay."
