Maughan a relieved man

Seldom has a winning dressing room been so gloomy. For well more than half an hour after the Mayo players had trooped rather disconsolately into their lair with the Brendan Nestor Cup, they remained incommunicado.

When eventually they made way for an emotional and stirring speech by the Sligo manager, Mickey Moran, some of the gloom seemed to disperse.

Their own manager, John Maughan, who had been exiled to the terraces from the team dug-out after on-pitch intrusions in the previous match, had the air of a man who had been reprieved on the morning of the hanging.

There was obvious relief on his face and voice. "I am glad that's over," he said. Needless to say he was generous to Sligo: "We knew they would not be pushed aside easily but I must admit that I was surprised that they kept up their wonderful effort for so long.

"They could have caught us in the end. As far as we are concerned we will have to improve. That was not the kind of performance which would convince me that we could beat Meath.

"I can't put my finger on it right now. But there is a possibility that some of us were a bit complacent about Sligo. I hope we have learned from that that there is no such thing as an easy match in the championship anymore.

"Sligo have a fine side and we will hear a lot of them in the not too distant future. They impressed me not only with their fitness and organisation but with their skill and their ability to play as a team," he concluded.

His opposite number from the Sligo camp, who apologised at the outset for the introduction of a very pronounced Derry accent, was as complimentary to Mayo as Maughan had been to Sligo. "We all know that Mayo has a great tradition insofar as Gaelic football is concerned," he told the Mayo dressing room. "I can assure everybody here that everybody in Sligo will be cheering for Mayo in the semifinal. What happened out there today has given us a big boost in our own way of looking at ourselves and I sincerely hope that before very long the Sam Maguire Cup will be coming across the Shannon once again."

The Secretary of the Sligo County Board, Tom Kilcoyne, was being more diplomatic than many others in the region of the Sligo dressing room, where criticism of referee Michael Curley from Galway was quite trenchant.

With Sligo looking rampant towards the end of the match after scoring a goal and a point, the referee allowed a mere 17 seconds above the allotted time - even though there had been blatant time-wasting by some of the Mayo free takers and also at least two minutes available as injury time.

Sligo supporters felt that they were at least entitled to another day out but it would appear on this performance that such a day out is merely delayed and that Sligo's time will come, not this year but within the foreseeable future.