Solid Mayo put themselves exactly where they want to be

Mayo 0-12 Sligo 0-10: ARE MAYO at last learning to win ugly? This was their first back-to-back title since the nearly years of 1996 and 1997 and as they trooped up the stony hill to the dressing rooms, the winning players looked satisfied and no more.

This Connacht final might have been dreadfully exciting at times but for long periods, it was just plain dreadful. The coaching impulse in James Horan, the winning manager and his Sligo counterpart Kevin Walsh, prompted them to bemoan the untidy statistics of dropped passes and poor decisions. But Mayo had the edge in quality as well as a big summer wind behind them during the tense last 10 minutes when they finally stepped up to claim their 43rd title.

The burly figure of Aidan O’Shea, who rumbled into the picture with 41 minutes gone, had a towering influence on this match.

For a few years, there was a question as to whether O’Shea’s child-star years in a minor shirt for Mayo would translate into the real thing. Under Horan’s watch, the Breaffy man has developed into a powerhouse of a midfielder.

He tossed Sligo men aside in the last half hour here, broke forward to lamp a big point and also sent Lee Keegan scampering onto a pass to fire the crucial score of the match.

O’Shea’s cameo was vital but the other Mayo midfielder Barry Moran was probably the pick of the players on show. Sligo couldn’t cope with his ability in the sky nor his mobility on the ground. He shot a second-half point for good measure and had a generally excellent game. Add the experience of Alan Dillon and Andy Moran to the mix – both landed fine second half scores – and the champions had the wherewithal to cope with the Sligo challenge.

Still, it was hardly in Mayo’s game plan to accrue just two points after 27 minutes of play. They started the game in strangely anxious fashion, as if bothered by a combination of the strong wind blowing towards the graveyard side of the ground and the general expectation that they would prevail.

They must have begun to wonder if it was going to be one of those days as freaky little things went against them in the first half.

After just eight minutes, Andy Moran coolly finished a Mayo goal but the slick Cillian O’Connor handpass he received from was whistled as a throw-ball. Seven minutes later Moran won a tough ball against Johnny Martyn and got goalside of the Sligo full-back but saw his fisted point clip the post and go wide.

On the half hour mark, Donal Vaughan wandered deep into Sligo country and tried to engineer a goal which was quickly snuffed out.

Sligo were up for this. Ross Donovan gave a performance redolent of his eye-catching debut season. The flame-haired Eastern Harps corner back seemed to pop up everywhere, stopping Jason Doherty in his tracks with an exquisitely timed shoulder and smothering a shot attempt with a brilliant, old fashioned block down shortly afterwards.

Sligo managed the best of the first-half attacks, with Adrian Marren chipping a fine point in the 21st minute to give them a 0-4 to 0-1 lead. Alan Costello made Mayo men wince with another of his long-range points and Johnny Martyn was perfectly positioned to block Barry Moran’s attempt on goal after 35 minutes.

In the second half, they found ways to keep their noses in front – with David Maye landing two frees from distance and Mark Breheny chipping an easy point.

But all of Sligo’s scores were hard-earned. David Kelly and Adrian Marren rarely had a chance to shine and Sligo needed to get Charlie Harrison on the ball more.

Yet the Mayo defence has become a stickier proposition in recent years. You pay if you run up blind alleys against them and they have a relentlessly wound-up half-back line – it was no coincidence that both wing backs were at hand to kick the scores which broke the Sligo resistance.

For an hour, Sligo made the gap between Division One and Three look negligible and when they review the tape of this match, they will find a baker’s dozen of small mistakes that could have made all the difference. Instead, the game will be reduced to the barest and most telling of statistics: Mayo collect title number 43 while Sligo remain stuck on three.

During that nervy first half, many thoughts must have turned to The Man Who Was Not There, particularly when the Mayo forwards struggled to locate the posts. But the arrival of O’Shea, Alan Freeman and the sight of Ronan McGarrity and Richie Feeney on the bench illustrated the strength in depth and by driving decisively to win the match, there was the sense that the Mortimer controversy will be left behind here in Hyde Park.

In a way, this was a perfect Connacht win for Mayo. They looked solid rather than in those summer days of old, when they have headed to Croke Park after spectacular local campaigns only to see a bonfire made of their vanities.

Hard weeks beckon on the training field between now and their next outing but it is mid-July and the Mayo men are right where they want to be.

MAYO:1 D Clarke; 2 K Keane, 3 G Cafferkey, 4 K Higgins; 7 C Boyle (0-1), 6 D Vaughan, 5 L Keegan (0-1); 8 B Moran (0-1), 9 D Geraghty (0-1); 10 K McLoughlin, 11 C O'Connor (0-3, two frees, one 45), 12 A Dillon (0-2); 13 E Varley (0-1, free), 14 A Moran (0-1), 15 J Doherty. Subs: 22 A O'Shea (0-1) for Geraghty (41 mins), 25 M Conroy for Varley (46 mins), 24 A Freeman for Doherty (60 mins). Yellow cards: Keegan (40 mins), B Moran (51, 70 mins), O'Connor (71 mins). Red card: B Moran (70 mins).

SLIGO:1 P Greene; 2 N Ewing, 3 J Martyn, 4 R Donovan; 5 C Harrison, 6 M Quinn, 7 P McGovern; 8 S McManus, 9 T Taylor; 13 M Breheny (0-2, two frees), 23 D Maye (0-2, one 45, one free), 12 B Egan; 10 A Costello (0-2, two frees), 14 A Marren (0-3 two frees), D Kelly (0-1). Subs: 24 E O'Hara for S McManus (46 mins), 17 E Mullen for T Taylor (59 mins), 26 S Coen for A Costello (63 mins), 19 J Davey for P McGovern (66 mins), 18 D Rooney for M Quinn (70 mins). Yellow cards: Maye (28 mins), Breheny (29 mins), O'Hara (51 mins), Kelly (60 mins)

Referee: C Reilly (Meath).