Eddie Gibbons says that Dublin hold no fear of Munster teams as they prepare for an All-Ireland quarter-final against Clare.The Dubs’ upset against Limerick last June was their first championship victory over Munster opposition in 10 years.Manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin recently stood up for the Leinster championship, suggesting people may be reading too much into the big games and crowds down south.Gibbons notes that teams from Munster are often “put on a pedestal”, but the boys in blue won’t lack belief.“You can’t really hold fear going into these games. A lot of the Munster teams will be put on a pedestal compared to the Leinster teams, but you have to go in fearless, and it is definitely possible,” says the Dublin goalkeeper.“We were disappointed to lose the [Division 1B] league final to Clare and the Leinster final there at the weekend, two tough losses. But there is another opportunity against Clare in 10 days’ time, so it is a good opportunity to put things right.”Gibbons doesn’t feel that the occasion or the weight of expectation among a 46,463 crowd got to Dublin during their Leinster final defeat to Galway.Having claimed a valuable four-point win in Salthill during the round robin, the Dubs came up well short, falling to an 18-point turnaround in the provincial decider.“I don’t think it was the occasion,” he says. “I’m not sure what exactly it was, but we expected a lot more from ourselves and we didn’t deliver, so hugely disappointed.”It has been feast or famine for the Dublin defence in the past two years. In 14 championship games under Ó Ceallacháin, they have kept seven clean sheets, but conceded 27 goals across the other seven games.Dublin's Eddie Gibbons. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho They have leaked four or more goals in five of those matches; against Wexford, Kilkenny, and Cork last year, and Offaly and Galway this term.The 25-year-old Kilmacud Crokes stopper and his team-mates had gone 230 minutes without allowing a green flag before the four-goal Leinster final onslaught, which ended 4-29 to 4-15 in Galway’s favour.“There was definitely an issue there last year, and you could even see it against Galway at the weekend,” says Gibbons. “You’re not going to win many games conceding that much.“We did put a lot of work into our shape and our structure at the back. In fairness, you could see that work earlier on in the championship. But I was disappointed to see us concede four there at the weekend.”The manner of those goals, with three coming after the 65th minute, offers some mitigation.“Two of the goals came when we fully pushed up, when we were kind of chasing the game there towards the end,” says Gibbons, “so I wouldn’t be as worried about them because of the situation of the game.[ In Cork, they unearthed a diamond in Brian Hayes. Polished, nowOpens in new window ]“But going forward into the championship, we’ll need to be much tighter back there, and we can’t be conceding that amount.”Dublin met on Wednesday evening to dissect the Leinster final. The nature of the All-Ireland series means that they won’t linger too long on that match in advance of their trip to Semple Stadium on Saturday week.They bounced back from a similar defeat in the 2024 Leinster final to go the distance in defeat to Cork, but Gibbons doesn’t take much from that experience.“Not really,” he replies. “We would have went out to beat Cork that day and we didn’t, so we’re going down to Thurles to play Clare in 10 days and we won’t be happy unless we get a win down there.”