A most disappointing Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football semi-final could claim at least one distinction. Seldom has a team been as dominant at this stage of the championship and yet allowed the match remain open until so late in proceedings.

Mayo showed impressive composure and concentration to establish and maintain a grip on the main channels of possession and despite a prodigious display of inaccuracy, picked off enough scores, frequently at just the right time, to preserve the comfortable lead they had built up from the start.

There were other more alarming phenomena for Mayo's manager John Maughan and his selectors, but they have now brought their bid to win the All-Ireland all the way back to the point where it faltered last year.

Hopes - however tenuous - that the two teams would produce a classic were undermined before the match started by the weather. Rain made the pitch surface difficult and a slippery ball was never going to be propelled around with the same aplomb Offaly had brought to their Leinster final demolition of defending champions Meath. A strong wind also spoiled the flow of the match, but was substantially better handled by Mayo.

This was evident in both halves. Mayo, having won the toss and elected to play with the wind, piled on the scores - albeit in an unsatisfactory ratio to wides - and Offaly had grave difficulty gaining possession of the ball, never mind moving it beyond their opponents' 40.

In the second half, the Connacht team's defence kept a mostly - but not exclusively - tight rein on the Offaly forwards, while their attack picked off balancing scores on the rare occasions when a revival was threatened and concluded the match having extended their half-time lead by a point.

The only positional switches made before the throw-in saw right half forward Maurice Sheridan swap places with David Nestor in the left corner and, on the Offaly side, Sean Grennan and Ciaran McManus repeated their Leinster final move between centrefield and centre forward - but held it for longer.

Pre-match speculation about Liam McHale's deployment was answered when the player stayed in his appointed full forward role for the whole match. Mayo's victory may be seen as the ultimate vindication of the selection, but McHale looked marginalised for virtually the entire match.

He started well and Offaly full back Larry Carroll appeared to be in for his now-routine "difficult afternoon". However, Carroll, to his credit, plugged away and McHale's early fizz went flat and after two early chances - one wide after 37 second and one point two minutes later - his contribution faded and he ended the half in referee Paddy Russell's notebook because of a high challenge.

That he was left to decline seemed especially puzzling as the attack plainly lacked direction and attacking moves were poorly organised. McHale's play-making capabilities were missed in the middle for little compensating reward up front.

It will be argued that plenty of chances were created and that dire finishing was more of a culprit than poor build-up, but the virtual monopoly of possession enjoyed by Mayo in the first half should have posed more menace than it did. Seven points were a poor return, but the lack of penetration was as bad.

Offaly were under pressure from the wind and the Mayo centrefield, where Pat Fallon and debutant David Heaney were excellent. They contributed hugely to giving the team a decisive edge. an Grennan and the hard-working Ronan Mooney. In addition, Mayo's half backs were ravenously on to breaking ball and greatly facilitated Mayo's control of the central sector.

Returned after suspension for his first match in two months, Colm McManamon picked up where he left off with an energetic display that further squeezed Offaly's supply of ball from the middle. The Leinster team didn't help their own cause by a succession of fumbles and badly directed clearances which variously found the sideline or an opponent but rarely a team-mate.

Moves to arrest the slide included switching Cathal Daly on to Nestor and taking Roy Malone further out the field to try and gain more possession, but he was well marshalled by the dependable (as ever) Pat Holmes. Offaly nearly snaffled a goal in the 18th minute when a ball drifting wide from Vinny Claffey was punched by Peter Brady and its looping arc caught out Peter Burke, who just about managed to scramble it away.

By the 23rd minute, Mayo had pushed 0-6 to nil ahead, with Sheridan allaying the fears concerning his hamstring injury by kicking a free and contributing well in general play, and Fergal Costello, outstanding all afternoon at wing back, raiding down the flank for the sixth score.

By now, all Mayo's forwards had registered a wide and there was little sign that Offaly were involved in the game at all. Despite having little to do, Mayo's defence was shortly to give worrying intimations of vulnerability.

In the 24th minute, Colm Quinn finally put Offaly on the scoreboard and as the team began to work the ball into better positions, gaps showed at the back for Mayo. Roy Malone was moved. On either side of him, however, matters were more fraught. Both Kenneth Mortimer and Dermot Flanagan struggled and whereas Mortimer recovered to take control of Peter Brady in the second half, Flanagan continued to make little impact on the apprehension of Mayo followers that he is now too short of pace for this level.

David Reynolds's first point was kicked from a wide-angled free underneath the New Stand and trailing 0-2 to 0-6, his team's chances hadn't been dismissed. Sheridan's injury-time free restored the difference.

Half-time debate centred on whether a five-point advantage would protect Mayo against the wind. Within two minutes of the re-start, Offaly had exerted enough pressure to create a great opportunity for Roy Malone, two-goal executioner of Meath in the Leinster final.

Straight in on Burke, Malone lost control and mis-kicked. Had he put the ball away, Offaly might have created sufficient momentum in a match that as late as the 67th minute, looked vulnerable to a goal from the midlanders. It was Malone's best chance of the afternoon. Having been switched to the left wing at half-time, his spirits were further deflated by Costello and even a reversion to full forward failed to rally him.

Offaly's full-forward line, sensational against Meath, had their productivity slashed from 3-8 a fortnight ago to a mere point yesterday. Inexperience and bad weather didn't help, but the lack of a decent supply was the principal reason. Seven points and four wides was an accurate reflection of an afternoon's dose of grim reality.

When the score-rush, half expected of Offaly, failed to materialise, it also became evident that Mayo were not going to sit back and let their opponents chip the deficit away by points.

Well into the fourth quarter, Mayo's advantage was unchanged as the teams had added just two points each to their interval totals. Both had introduced substitutes: Kevin O'Neill replacing James Horan after a display sadly more in keeping with his season's norm than the heroics of last year's All-Ireland finals and a disappointing Ciaran McManus making way for James Grennan on the Offaly side.

Set up by Nestor - whose pace and perseverance made him the only Mayo forward to pose constant menace - O'Neill should have had a goal shortly after coming on, but was well shadowed by Daly who had an outstanding match. Kieran McDonald and McHale followed up, but the ball was somehow beaten away before a free out was awarded.

A brace of points from McDonald pushed Mayo six ahead with little more than 10 minutes to go. Such was the wastage, however, and the lingering memory of Offaly's damburst of scores in the Leinster final that even as late as the 67th minute, when Reynolds narrowed the gap to 0-7 to 0-11, there was a feeling that the Leinster team could do it.

Eventually this illusion was dispelled by Nestor and Sheridan in the closing minutes. With four weeks to go before facing Kerry - for the first time in an All-Ireland final - Mayo still have work to do, but that's a lot better than the alternative.