Mayo mix flair with same old failings

We heard a brassy version of the Star Spangled Banner and saw a Mayo team papering over the same old cracks. They still move with the same verve, still have individuals who illuminate the game and still sound a convincing argument. But Mayo also still leave doubts.

Fifteen wides against a novice team and a scoreline which flattered them, the home team cruised through this game but the manner of their win won't exactly have set Connacht quaking.

"We are delighted to have won, naturally, but I am disappointed with the way we played," said Mayo manager John Maughan after a lengthy team discussion in the dressing-room.

"It would have been better to have played more constructively and won by a smaller margin. We had simply too many handling errors and really, as a spectacle, it was a dreadful game of football.

"It was very apparent that New York prepared very diligently for this game and I think they acquitted themselves extremely well on their first outing but from our own point of view, well, our general approach play just wasn't good enough."

Plain talking for a plain old problem. Initially, it looked as though Mayo were in the form to chalk up a record score against the expatriates. David Nestor burned Gerry Kelly with a devilish turn and slipped a third-minute goal past Emmet Haughian and then curled a point during the next passage of play.

Two minutes later, James Horan fisted his first score before Maurice Sheridan floated a free on the back of a strong breeze. Six points behind (1-3 to 0-0) after 12 minutes and the New York bench began to look a little queasy.

Late injury problems cost them three first-team regulars and the selectors were forced to carry out last-minute open heart surgery with the team sheet, utterly altering the intended formation.

But they mucked in with ceaseless grit and gradually probed their way into the game. Full back Sean Teague and captain Neville Dunne soaked up an enormous amount of pressure at the back and Joe Cassidy, a former Cavan stalwart in the 1980s, had a shining half hour when introduced.

And for all Mayo's midfield options, Pat Mahoney distinguished himself over the hour, his coup de grace being a 50th-minute fetch which he capped by smacking a wonderful point from about 50 metres.

Indeed, the visitors combined for some choice points over the hour and should really have had at least another three points on the board. As it was, popping 10 against a defence as savvy as Mayo's was not to be shrugged at.

"Well, yeah, we are sort of proud in a way," said New York selector Leslie McGettigan. "But there's mixed emotions. The early goal hurt us and then the one just before half-time was a bit of death blow. Maybe the heads dropped a wee bit but I think we showed we can play a bit of football." And the Mayo goals - executed with clinical pragmatism - occurred at particularly galling times for the visiting side. Nestor's effort arose from an initial defensive mix-up but New York seemed to be on the verge of recovering from that, fighting back to trail 0-3 to 1-6, when they erred again in injury time.

Mayo punished them for dithering, with Nestor robbing possession and slipping a ball through for Colm McManamon to race on to and fire home, foreign code style.

That essentially killed whatever slim suggestion of a contest had ever existed but New York competed gamely over the second half, with Michael Slowey and Willie O'Donnell trading points with Horan and Sheridan early on.

But Mayo were simply going through the motions by then, with Liam McHale stretching his limbs over the last 30 minutes and even though they linked beautifully at times, the forwards displayed worryingly erratic traits, mixing some fine scores with scarcely credible wides.

Their ills aren't terminal and they still pulse with genuine talent. Whether they can unearth the old sharpness remains to be seen.