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After every victory, no more than after every loss in a football game, people look for something to take out of it and work on for the next game. Scoring 6-25 in a provincial final win makes everything appear rosy on the the attacking side. But questions are also asked about the quality of the team you have just beaten. Add in the fact that you also conceded 2-11 to a team you were so far ahead of on the field of play, to go with the 2-8 you shipped against Galway in the Connacht semi-final win, and the attention on Mayo has switched to their potential defensive frailties.

THE FIRST time most people heard Damien Dempsey was in 1997, when the late Gerry Ryan played the songwriter's debut single 'Dublin Town' almost continuously on 2FM. It was catchy, but there was nothing to indicate this was the opening salvo from a man poised to become one of Ireland's most gifted songwriters.

Mayo joint manager Pat Holmes was happy with his sides performance on Sunday in their win over Monaghan, but there's still plenty room of improvement he said: “We created loads of chances, we have a bit of work to do yet and things to improve on, but we were looking for an improvement on our performance the last day, we would have been disappointed with that but we knew that we were better than we showed the last day and in fairness to the boys they came out and played very, very well.”

Not long after they had overseen a win in their debut contest as the joint managers of the Mayo senior football team, Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes came out of the dressing room to speak to the local press corp in the concrete tunnel under the bowls of the stand in Elverys MacHale Park.

You don't often hear an inter-county manager saying it was the wrong decision taking on the job, or it was wrong that they were offered the job in the first place. But Pat Holmes did admit last Saturday night that when he was appointed Mayo manager for the first time in 1999 it probably wasn't the right choice by him to take it on or for the county board to offer it to him.

Next week when the Scots go to the polls to vote whether to stay or nay, there'll be mixed feelings on this side of the country. We might have watched with pride the exploits of Mel Gibson as William Wallace, roaring on his compatriots (all of whom looked like Brendan Gleeson) in the battle against the Sassanach in Braveheart; we might have found ourselves running down that street with Ewan McGregor in the opening of Trainspotting; we might have found ourselves singing in the street at 4am to the lyrics of The Proclaimers; we probably roared on Archie Gemmill when he scored that wonder goal against the Dutch in the '78 World Cup, but here in Galway, there is only one thing that we have not yet forgiven the Scots for — and that's the stealing of Digital.

Barry Moran has been in this position, too many times than he'd care to remember. But the big Castlebar man still took the time to pick over what had happened after another All Ireland final defeat in Croke Park on Monday evening. "We're bitterly disappointed. Going in at half-time we were in a good position. We felt that we could have pushed on and we had a great opportunity to win the game. We didn't. It was Vincent's who pushed on and in the end they were the better team and deservedly champions.”

Castlebar Mitchels defender Alan Feeney was full of praise for victors in Monday's All Ireland club final, but at the same time said he believed he and his team-mates didn't live up to their abilities on the day. “Gutted, I don't think we preformed to our full potential today which is kinda disappointing, but at the same time Vincent's we're very strong and on the day they were the better team and the better team won, so we can't make any gripes about it.”

After a not your normal league opener in Newbridge on Sunday, Mayo captain Andy Moran was left scratching his head a bit, how exactly his team ended up loosing after kicking 2-18 over the 70 minutes. “I thought we did quite well to be honest, scoring 2-18 in a league game at the start of February, you'd expect to win to be honest, but it wasn't to be. We'd probably three chances to kill off the game and we never did. I think in the first half, we went 0-10 to 0-7 up and then they hit a purple patch and hit 1-3 or 1-4 that was vital in terms of the game. In the second half then we got goals and we went a head, then they went down and got a goal and went ahead. It was a very unusual game, usually in these games you see them ending up 1-8 to 1-9 or something like that” was his initial reaction to the game that had just unfolded.

Connacht's win over the most decorated Heineken Cup side ranks as one of the best in the European competition, says Gavin Duffy.