The Cork footballers' withdrawal from Croke Park is as pacy and well-organised as their defence. Much shouting, much haste and out the doors they go. The imperative of the train timetable rules out much introspection, and no one would believe that this gnaws at manager Larry Tompkins's conscience as he and his team speed towards Heuston leaving behind only sparse squiggles in reporters' notebooks.

Vaguely under pressure since the team lost to Clare in his first championship in charge two years ago, Tompkins has turned 1999 into a cavalcade of vindication. A settled team, a league title and a Munster championship have now been followed by victory over the most experienced team in this year's All-Ireland semi-finals.

Now they are within 70 minutes of achieving a double. League and championship for the footballers and, more tantalisingly, hurling and football for the county which last achieved this rare feat nine years ago when Tompkins captained the footballers.

Yesterday began with high levels of anticipation. Mayo's belief that the team was sufficiently restored to encourage hopes of finally landing an All-Ireland were counter-pointed by the growing possibility of a Cork double.

A near-capacity attendance of 58,496 (the figure changes every week as new rows of blue seats rapidly materialise on the Canal End) turned out for the meeting of the surprise winners of Connacht and Munster. In the minor match beforehand, Mayo struck an early blow for morale by beating Cork with an accomplished display.

Cork's victory in the main event was all the more satisfying as it emerged after a match which had started so badly. In the first quarter, Cork were overrun as the battle of the hype was distinctly favouring Mayo's "new improved attack" over Cork's "best defence in the country".

The latter eventually prevailed, and in good style, leaving the former substantially disproved. But trailing 0-1 to 0-6 by the 18th minute, Cork were living in danger of being shut down before half-time.

"Maybe we were a bit tight starting, a bit of nerves," said Tompkins. "We'd had a lot of motivation coming into this match. We'd been written off by a lot of people even though we'd won the National League and a Munster title. But we stuck to our game plan and it all worked out in the end."

Selector Conor Counihan was a member of the 1990 team and is credited with co-ordinating the defence, which has grown from strength to strength this year. His reaction was primarily one of relief.

"Overall we were very pleased with the performance. It had its scary moments, but we're glad to be now within 70 minutes of the All-Ireland - and that's as much as we could have hoped for at the start of the day."

Another scary moment for Cork came at the very end when captain Philip Clifford had to be replaced a few minutes after falling awkwardly and appearing to injure further his already well-strapped knee.

"He's fine," said Counihan.

"We took him off more as a precaution."

For Mayo it was the same old story. A lack of firepower up front undid a lot of good early work. Despite the promise of three years ago, the current team can hardly hope to bring home an All-Ireland after three goes at the prize.

"When Cork got the first goal," said Pat Fallon, who had been sent on to try to revive a centrefield which was beginning to go under, "the momentum turned against us, but even at the very end we could have pulled it back. You can prepare all you like, but it's all on the day. They played better than I'd seen them play, even in the Munster final."

In a curious way, the dressingroom felt as if it had been long ago drained of its capacity for heartbreak. Cutting through the disappointment of having had genuine hopes that they could go the distance this time was a weariness with the way such journeys have always ended.

"By the end," said manager John Maughan, "the tide was coming in, but it is hard to understand how we performed the way we did. When you are beaten in a variety of sectors, you can't really win. Cork were very impressive and won most of the battles throughout the field, but I thought the game was retrievable until the second goal. "I don't know why we should have played so poorly. If anyone was hungry, it should have been ourselves."

Eventually someone mumbles the inevitable question, its directness undisguised by circumlocution. What now?

"It's hard to know about the future when they've taken so many knocks. This was another body-blow, and it's hard to know how much more they can take. This is basically the same group which came up in '96 and they've a lot of mileage up."

And himself?

"I'll be considering what I'm going to do in the days and weeks ahead."