FOOTBALL history was made yesterday in a football town as Mayo defeated Galway in Tuam for the first time in 46 years. The sun came out in the west with ideal conditions at the venue setting the scene for a helter of a Bank of Ireland Connacht championship tie between the province's most enduring rivals.

Although Mayo had decisively regained the initiative by the final quarter, they were never out of sight on the scoreboard and had the nagging precedent of a wildfire first half to keep nerves on edge.

The unyielding history of the venue had held up fancied Mayo teams in the past and looked to be about its business again yesterday when the visitors, having started in rampant form, were reeled back in by a fiery Galway comeback which levelled the match by halftime.

By the end of it all, Galway were wistful at the failure to exploit a halftime position full of promise but not despondent after a spirited performance by their young side, a third of whom were starting their first championship match.

Mayo were relieved to have survived and fairly chuffed to have pocketed a trinket of history by putting to rest at last their Tuam phantoms. There is still much work to be done. The team showed little evidence of having remedied some of the scoring deficiencies up front and, more alarmingly, were unable to coax commanding performances from last year's dominant personalities.

Nonetheless, manager John Maughan could reflect with some satisfaction on the substantial improvement shown over last year's opening displays in Connacht, against London and Roscommon, during which only mescalin could have triggered visions of Mayo nearly winning an All Ireland.

The football was at times exhilarating yesterday and if some of the tactics employed were peculiar, it was overall a cracking match and a great advertisement for football, which hadn't up until yesterday been blessed with spectacles worthy of the age of live television.

In beautiful weather with the crowds streaming into the ground, tension ran high from the start - in fact from before the start.

As referee Eddie Neary prepared to throw in the ball, it was noticed that Mayo's full forward John Casey was stretched on the ground.

Both he and his marker Gary Fahy were booked, hut the jack acting continued and Casey was fortunate not to get the line for lashing out at his marker after the referee's sanction.

To general surprise, Galway lined out more or less as selected, as did Mayo - adherence to plans that was to cause trouble for both teams.

The match can be divided into three phases, each of which involved initiative passing from one side to the other. Mayo dominated the first phase from the throw in. Maurice Sheridan, who had a steady day which produced eight points and only one wide, had a couple of scores in this period.

Sandwiched between these points, in the third minute, came a goal which dropped into Mayo's lap after Galway's initial crack at a short kick out strategy came disastrously unstuck when a mistake by Fahy allowed Liam McHale and Casey create an opening for PJ Loftus, who scored the afternoon's only goal.

Mayo were winning everything in the middle, including breaking ball, and Galway's defence looked uncertain under the pressure. Up front for Galway, not alone were the home side's forwards not seeing much of the ball but James Nallen was asking the most searching questions about player manager Val Daly's decision to play himself on the 40.

Three scores had their origin in the Mayo centre back's driving runs up the pitch before Daly made the inevitable decision to move, swapping places with Michael Donnellan in the 25th minute.

Before this took place, Mayo's opening bombardment had taken them 1-4 to nil clear by the 10th minute.

Galway managed a couple of replies but by the end of the first quarter, as McHale pushed Mayo 1-5 to 0-3 ahead, there was nothing to suggest that Galway could find a way back into the game. Their attack was being eaten by Kevin Cahill and Kenneth Mortimer; only John Donnellan on an out of sorts Dermot Flanagan was making headway.

The change on Galway's half forward line coincided with the team's best spell. Nallen found Michael Donnellan and together more problematic task and the 19 year old Galwayman began to use his pace to cut great incisions in the Mayo defence, nearly delivering a spectacular goal just after one such burst, but he blazed the ball wide.

At wing back, both Noel Connelly and Fergal Costello, who had coped comfortably up to that point, began to hit turbulent patches. Costello struggled for a while on Daly and Connelly became subject to unforced error.

The early pattern reversed, Galway's Sean O Domhnaill put in sturdy work at midfield, and with his half forwards row buzzing and wing backs Sean Og de Paor and Tomas Mannion snapping up the breaks, the Galway full forwards came into the match.

Niall Finnegan was a revelation at full forward, giving the hitherto imperturbable Cahill a hair raising time. Bit by bit, the deficit was whittled away. Mayo tried to revive midfield by moving McHale and Colm McManamon, but the momentum was Galway's and the interval score of 1-6 to 0-9 boded ill for Mayo.

Such foreboding looked well founded when John Donnellan and Finnegan pushed their team two points in front five minutes after the resumption.

As a prelude to their recovery, Mayo replaced the beleaguered Flanagan with Pat Holmes in keeping with much of the comment on the original selection. This didn't serve to quieten John Donnellan immediately, but Holmes eventually made his mark.

The recovery may have hinged on Galway's fatigue. Their exertions in hunting down the big deficit must have been draining for such a young and inexperienced team but Mayo accepted the challenge of adversity with good spirits.

Pat Fallon had a huge role in turning around midfield, whereas Costello subdued Daly to the point where Galway's manager took himself off in the 54th minute. The introduction of Kieran McDonald at halftime gave more life to Mayo's attack and together with David Nestor, he posed renewed problems for Galway and kicked two points.

At the heart of all this improved endeavour, Sheridan steadily accumulated frees and by the end, the excitement had died sufficiently to allow home supporters the baleful convenience of leaving early the ground their team once found impregnable.