Mayo's weaknesses laid bare by Laois

THE prodigality of September came back again to haunt (Mayo yesterday when they squandered chances in this National League game at Portlaoise which they should have won by a very long street. The gods of destiny were not smiling on their efforts to mend their broken dreams of recent times.

A second half rally which should have secured the win was frustrated, by two, brilliant saves by rookie Laois goalkeeper, Fergal Byron, but two net bound shots midway through the second half came back off the crossbar to frustrate even further Mayo's attempt to repair some of the fences which have collapsed within the last few weeks.

In the long run, however, Mayo can blame only themselves for sending a host of scoring attempts either wide or short of the target against a Laois - team which enhanced its growing reputation as the side which is not overly impressed by others' reputations, however lofty.

To add to Mayo's discomfiture - and John Maughan's disappointment and that of his players was quite obvious in a depressed dressingroom afterwards - it has to be taken into account that the Laois county championship final was Ia ed as a curtain raiser to this match, thus robbing the Laois selectors of many potentially stronger and more experienced players.

Two players figured in both matches, Hugh Emerson from the county final losers, Portarlington, and PJ Dempsey from the winners, St Joseph's. Emerson, who fielded from the start, played a highly significant role and Dempsey came into the game as a late substitute.

Even after the traumas of recent weeks, one could not be impressed by the slackness of some of Mayo's play. With the wind behind them - a tricky and considerable wind at that they persisted in lofting the ball high into the air in attempts to score, allowing the fickle breeze to have its frustrating way with their best efforts, when a strongly struck kick with a low trajectory might have yielded results. Mayo managed no fewer than 10 such failures in the first half. Laois had just one.

In the second half, Laois again limited their failure rate to live with Mayo claiming, if that's the word, no fewer than a total of 17 throughout the match, plus two which fell short into the grateful hands of the Laois goalkeeper.

One must not, however, ignore or dismiss the Laois effort. Short eight potential team members they opened gaps in the Mayo defence which even Meath had failed to exploit, and scored two goals in the first half.

The first came five minutes into the match when a free by Damian Delaney floated into the Mayo goal mouth where Liam O'Connor got the vital touch behind a slack Mayo defence to defect the flight of the ball to the net.

The second came 10 minutes later when a sweeping move out of defence saw the wily Leo Turley steal in behind the slumbering Mayo defence to make the most of fine work by Damian Delaney and Ian Fitzgerald. The goal left the score 2-2 to 0-2 in favour of the home team.

It was then that Mayo's superior fitness and preparedness was expected to come into play, and to some extent it did. Laois led by 2-3 to 0-3 at the break and added another point by Delaney five minutes after the restart. In the meantime PJ Loftus shot wide a David Nestor shot was brilliantly saved by Byron and Michael Gardner shot wide.

Worse was to follow. Gardner and Nest or both saw their shots for goal come thundering back off the crossbar as Mayo surged forward. Two successful James Horan frees suggested that Mayo had found the necessary accuracy, but then Horan followed with two dreadful wides from placed balls and another miss from play.

By this stage Mayo had lost control of midfield by reason of an injury to Pat Fallon and although the introduction of Tom Reilly added a little bite to the Mayo attack, their luck did not change. A shot by Nest or was again brilliantly blocked by Byron as Mayo's superior fitness began to tell, sadly too late for them.

Laois played like a team with great potential. When they are able to pick from a full panel they will be a very difficult team to beat.

Mayo can, look forward to the fact that their panel, so grievously depleted by suspensions, will eventually be restored, But the problem remains that they have too many wayward forwards who do not seem to know where their posts are.