NO ROCKETS flaring. No guns crashing. Nothing at all here in fact to scare anyone else in Connacht or beyond. Mayo and Roscommon travelled to Hyde Park yesterday, failed to draw enough people to fill the place and failed to impress those who did turn up.

For a while, going into the last 10 minutes, the match burned with excitement Roscommon got their noses two points in front and briefly glimpsed an unlikely victory. However, Mayo sorted out their gears, speeded things up bit and turned the game around in the last seven minutes. What this loose, error-ridden game said about Mayo's chances of beating Galway in a Connacht final for the first time since 1969 is anyone's guess.

Mayo won and always seemed to have the capability to do so if not the inclination. Any time Roscommon asked questions of them they had the answers but they seemed unable to deliver extempore flashes of their own potential. The Mayo midfield drifted out of contention for patches of the second half, the forwards tossed the ball around well and the half backs, especially James Nallen, were superb, but overall they failed to gel for the 70 minutes.

Mayo manager John Maughan turned his side out armed with the usual bag of tricks. Some inventiveness too in the selection of a team which bore only four survivors from the corresponding game between the counties last year. Colm McMenamon went to centre forward, allowing Liam McHale to drift back and do what he does best in the middle of the park.

The full forward line shuffled itself as well. David Nestor, boiling with early promise, moved into the left corner with Maurice Sheridan shifting out to the wing. Diarmuid Byrne operated in the full forward hole while he lasted. After just 20 minutes John Casey took up that responsibility.

Roscommon, having taken an early lead through a couple of Derek Duggan frees, lost their momentum early on. McHale and David Brady enjoyed a period as unchallenged emperors of the air and Mayo had much the better of the half.

Even allowing for the fact that the Roscommon defence were inclined to stand off their men as if there was a plague about, Mayo moved with some cohesion when going forward. Nestor dug out plenty of ball in the corner and linked well with Sheridan. James Horan on the other wing showed lots of life and interest and when they strung a few hand-passes together they cut through Roscommon's defence at will.

Early on, with Roscommon pegged back to parity by a Nestor point and a Sheridan free, Nestor almost had a goal. Declan Sweeney flicked on for him but the ball bounced awkwardly just as he was about to volley a shot at goalkeeper Paul Staunton.

The pressure came after that in waves. Horan put Mayo ahead, Duggan pulled them back. Roscommon then gave a little demonstration of the permissive ways of their full back line when Casey took a ball right at the end line and was permitted to solo back out to the 21 and feed the totally unmarked McMenamon who popped over the lead point.

By the break Mayo led by six points to four and after the interval they came back out and added another two points. The first was the score of the game when Nallen soloed 60 yards, flicked to McMenamon, took the return and fed Sweeney who passed to Horan who in his turn shot over. Each pass delivered on the run to a man in space who took the ball in full flight. Nallen, enjoying a purple patch, added the next score.

Then, surprisingly, Roscommon strung five points together in a 10-minute spell without Mayo even hinting at a reply. The Mayo midfield went missing in action, Ciaran Heneghan and Rossa O'Callaghan, the Roscommon wing backs, became a little more adventurous. Maughan, patrolling the touchline anxiously, must have wondered if Mayo had lost their zip entirely by the time Niall O'Donoghue put Roscommon a point ahead in the 56th minute.

Roscommon generally laboured a little bit working the ball out of defence but during that patch and briefly later on they repeatedly found the right pass or threatened sufficiently for Mayo to foul them. As late as the 63rd minute they led, Duggan's free kicks having kept them ahead as Mayo revived themselves.

McHale and Sheridan both scored two points in the closing minutes as the game swung decisively Mayo's way. McHale had reasserted his superiority in the middle of the field and together with Nallen was rampaging through the Roscommon defence on long unhindered runs. Anthony Finnerty and Ray Dempsey had been thrown in as a tonic for the attack.

In those final moments, as the scores flowed and Mayo wove their patterns at will, it was possible to believe we would be seeing them in Croke Park later this year. Other evidence through the 70 minutes needs to be taken into account however. Verdict later.