Banquet without any happy celebrations

CONSENSUS clearly emerged last night from near and far in regard, not so much to Meath's win as to Mayo's defeat. Having led the chase for the Sam Maguire Cup by considerable margins in both the drawn match and yesterday, the general impression was that Mayo had deserved to win but that they had not had the temerity to do so.

The former Dublin captain Tony Hanahoe, expressed the view that if Mayo had converted all the chances which had come their way, that they would have won by a handful of points. "Quite frankly I am baffled by the tactics which were employed both in the first half and the second half, when it seemed to me that Mayo were by far the better team and that if they had taken the chances which arrived, they would have put themselves well beyond Meath.

"The midfield, even after the sending off of Liam McHale, still held the dominating position and when Pat Fallon came on, Mayo proved that they could push forward but amazingly several of the Mayo players were playing in defensive positions and there was nowhere for the midfielders to deliver the ball."

Mick O'Dwyer agreed with this analysis of the Mayo position. "I understand perfectly why John Maughan should play his centre half forward Colm McMenamon behind the midfield, when they were in a defensive situation; but I cannot understand why Mayo decided to play with only two active forwards at any stage of the match."

Paddy Prendergast, who played at full back in the winning Mayo teams of 1950 and 1951, looked quite astonished that his beloved county had failed: "I just cannot believe it. I am sick. We were by far the better team in both matches and yet here we are beaten by a point. As a Mayo man, I am going away from here profoundly disappointed; but our players did us; proud and I believe that they can come back next year," he said.

All of this was reflected in a rather subdued `celebration' in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin last night. Although it appeared that even Meath people (some of them at any rate) were still feeling some sympathy for Mayo; the celebrations not many miles north of Dublin were beginning to take over, while Mayo supporters were going home sadder but wiser people.