Mayo easily beat New York by fifteen points in the Connacht Senior Football Championship at Gaelic Park in the Bronx.

The All-Ireland Championship began in the New York sunshine, and it was the exiles who started brilliantly, rattling off four points in the first five minutes in front of 3,000 fans.

Two points from center forward Paddy Smith were followed by a John McNicholas effort and a free from Robert Moran.

Mayo were quick to respond with an Andy Moran point and then another from full forward Aodan O’Shea, who should really have put under the bar for a goal.

Robert Moran scored another point from a free to make it 0-5 to 0-2 after 11 minutes.

However, New York’s burst was from a team that just could not compete with its opponent, and that would be the last score the exiles would get in the first half.

The visitors completely took over, a Moran point sandwiched by two points from captain Trevor Mortimer and full forward O'Shea leveled the game.

Alan Dillon showed why he was an All Star in 2006 and started to run the show, scoring a point, setting up a goal for Pat Harte and then tapping over another.

Three more points from Moran, McGarrity, and Gardner stretched the lead further and then a fisted goal from O'Shea left the score at 2-10 to 0-5 at the half.

The second half continued in much the same vein as the first ended. Captain Trevor Mortimer scored immediately and further points from Dillon and Harte increased the margin.

The next four points were shared between New York’s Paddy Smith and Mayo’s Andy Moran to leave the scores 2-15 to 0-7.

New York Sub Ronan Caffrey put another point on the board for New York, while Mayo’s replacement Kilcoyne scored on his introduction.

New York’s Francie Cleary scored another long point from distance and Kilcoyne scored a 45, quickly followed by  Mortimer, who tacked on another point.

Tommy McGovern scored a consolation point for the exiles and Mayo full forward Aodan O'Shea scored the final point to make the score 2-19 to 0-10.

New York battled valiantly for the first 15 minutes, but the gulf in conditioning, preparation and skill told in the end. Man of the match Pat Harte had a big game for Mayo, while colleague Alan Dillon oozed class throughout.

For the exiles, Paddy Smith always looked lively on the ball and keeper Evan Byrne saved the hosts from an embarrassing scoreline with several outstanding saves.

Mayo
D Clarke; L O’Malley, G Cafferkey, K McLoughlin; P Gardiner (0-1), T Howley, D Vaughan; R McGarrity (0-1), T Parsons (0-1); P Harte (1-1), T Mortimer (0-2), A Dillon (0-3); A Moran (0-4), A O’Shea (1-3, 1f), B Moran (0-1).
Subs used: J Nallen for Howley; B Padden for Parsons; D Heaney for McLoughlin; A Kilcoyne (0-2, 1’45) for A Moran; M Sweeney for Dillon.

New York
E Byrne; J Bell, A Downes, C Hunter; D Keane, A Raftery, B O’Reilly; R Moran (0-2, 2fs), R Garvey; J McNicholas (0-1, 1f), P Smith (0-4), K McGeeney; J Goldrick, D Reilly, F Cleary (0-1).
Subs used: A Carolan for Downes; G Dowd for Reilly (inj); R Caffrey (0-1) for Garvey; S Carthy for McNicholas; T McGovern (0-1) for McGeeney.

Referee: R Hickey (Clare)