HOARSE, throaty cries urging on the Mayo teak were replaced by screams of rage and despair in Westport, in the dying minutes of yesterday's AllIreland.

As Meath went into the lead for the first time in the match, one man in JJ O'Malley's pub on Bridge Street banged his pint on the counter in exasperation. Another responded angrily as Meath and Mayo players scrapped and fought for possession. "Put the ... ing boot in," he roared.

Up to then, the crowd of supporters packed into the darkened pub had grown more and more excited, as the minutes ticked by and Mayo stayed in the lead. The end of the long march to victory seemed in sight, after years of famine and two weeks after Meath had snatched a draw at the end of a match dominated by Mayo.

Defeat, when it came, was hard to take. Adrian McGing, from Westport, was downcast and silent. He quickly looked to the future. "Our biggest task next year is to get out of Connacht. Galway have a very strong side and that will be our biggest task," he said.

His feelings of disappointment at the match result were tinged with anger. "The referee lost control of himself. I think he has a lot of questions to answer," he said.

There were sad faces in Matt Molloy's pub down the street, but Padraig Boyle from Westport looked cheerful enough under a green cap which bore the words, An Mhi. "I'm wearing a Meath hat, because I'm totally anti GAA," he said. "I think they're a load of crooks. It's all money and politics."

In the corner, a group of women decked out in Mayo's green and red were getting ready to welcome home the team. "They'll get a great reception," said Phil Kelly, also from Westport.

She started singing Moonlight in Mayo, a sentimental and nostalgic song. It seemed to sum up the bittersweet mood of a county that had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yet again.

"It's just a year ago today I left old Erin's isle she sang softly.

Ah, well, there is always next year.