THERE'S a women's clothing shop called The Spinning Wheel in Main Street, Castlebar all decked out in red, and green. A pram, swathed in the same colours, is in a central position attended by a well upholstered, similarly clad similarly clad mannequin.

A banner on the side of the pram says: Expecting Sam. The whole of Mayo is pregnant with anticipation.

Even nature herself has hung out her colours for Mayo. Hawthorns flank the railway line as it runs through the western countryside. The prolific dark green bushes are heavily laden with red haws. On the streets and window sills of villages and by neat bungalows along country roads, geraniums, flaunt the red and green as well. Buildings at railway stations are adorned with bunting, and freshly painted signal cab ins proclaim allegiance to Mayo.

Throughout Mayo, football has impinged on nature. Small boys are proud to have their hair dyed one half red and one half green.

Nor has the animal kingdom escaped. Cows and sheep have had their coats dyed for the occasion. One suspects that if Sam finally arrives, the dogs in the street will not be safe from the pavement artists.

A former great Mayo player, Paddy Prendergast, remembers a previous occasion, when he saw a red and green bedecked dumper truck driving at top speed through the cramped traffic in Castlebar with flags flying proudly on either side. "I'm sure Rommel never drove a tank through the desert with such authority," he says.

This is the countryside about which John, Healy wrote his mould breaking treatise No One Shouted Stop! When All Ireland referee Pat McEneaney whistled `stop' two weeks ago, somewhat prematurely in the view of many, little did he realise that he was causing a lot of mixed feelings in Mayo.

He prompted a flurry of calls to Knock and other airports and to offices and business premises in places as far apart as Birmingham and Boston, Coventry and Chicago, Newcastle and New York, as people home for the match sought ticket changes and extensions of holidays or had suddenly discovered that a beloved granny had died again!

Mayo has sent generation after generation to the old and new world alike but the ties which bind them to home cannot be broken, and football is the strongest of all the threads. Never, however, has a bounce of a ball caused so much communal stress.

The bleak years since 1951 will all be forgotten if the ball bounces the other way on Sunday. Spurred on by the exploits of Clare and Wexford in hurling in recent times, Mayo people and the team which represents them now seek to reclaim their sporting heritage.

The fierce commitment to the cause is expressed in many ways and at every opportunity. A `Mayo Anthem' sung by Tom Tom and the Byrne Babes, an ad hoc band cobbled together from Byrne's pub in Castlebar, has been climbing the charts and has just broken into the Irish Top 10 and getting airtime on national radio. It is a version of Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song: `Mayo May ay ay ay oh. Sam Maguire's Coming Home to Mayo."

A banner stretching the imposing width of the Welcome Inn Hotel proclaims its message. The Darling Buds of Mayo."

Nobody wants to be left, out and everybody insists in getting in on the act. Local newspapers are having a field day. Measuring the mood of the moment, the Connacht Telegraph and the Western People have produced several supplements in full colour and choc a bloc with advertisements chronicling the exploits of the team and attempting to examine the psychology of the Mayo experience.

In the Western People Christy Loftus, a former Mayo County Board chairman, seeks to whip up the spirit of the troops with a dissertation on what makes Mayo people tick. "I know it's only a game of football and one should not get too excited about it, but this air of pessimism that has enveloped the county following the draw with Meath is beginning to give me a pain in the butt."

He writes of the widespread perception (according to him) that: "We (Mayo people) are too nice, too generous, too sportsman with being open and friendly and decent and being good sports," and goes on to suggest that a team wins because it is the better team and that Mayo have only to be better than Meath to win the replay.

Mind you, it is difficult to understand where he found all the pessimism.

His own newspaper and other local ones as well, seem to be dominated by letters to the editor urging Mayo to `go for it!'.

The letter writers come from places as far apart as Atlanta, Florida, London, Roscommon, Mohill and, heaven help us, Dunboyne, all advocating positive approaches. The pages are lull of advertisements for public functions for Mayo people in Dublin, Stoke Newington and Upper Clapton, as well as more local venues all over the county itself where raffles for those elusive tickets will surely prove the biggest attraction.

The editorial writers have also got in on the act, one proclaiming: "The whole county will be transformed next week if we win." It appeals to the supporters in Croke Park to let the players know where their loyalties lie.

Certainly there is no complacency and, most certainly, no pessimism. For sure, there is hope. Everyone pays generous tribute to John Maughan and everybody is willing, modestly, to offer advice as to how to go about the task ahead. The fact that practically every senior club in the county and some outside of it, are represented in the squad has moulded a rare unanimity. Every parish has had an input or has been given an opportunity to make an impact.

If, as expected in The Spinning Wheel window, Sam arrives in Mayo on Monday evening there may be a rash of Sams and Samanthas in the county in the next nine months.

If Sam does not arrive, there will be profound disappointment. But one gets the feeling that despair will never be the lot of Mayo people as far as football is concerned.

The faith, which has been cherished for so long, will be kept and hopes for "next year" will be expressed. Nothing endures in Mayo, not ever. Croagh Patrick or Nephin, as much as football and the passion for the green and red.