FROM the moment Ray Dempsey scored Mayo's goal in the drawn match, Seamus Rogers was worried. Trainer of the Dublin based Mayo players, he knew that each time the team had scored a goal during the season their concentration levels had dropped. Going into the final quarter, he felt that they might lose the initiative.

He was proved right and that failure to maintain momentum when the match was there for the taking is why all eyes are on Croke Park again for tomorrow's (3.30) Bank of Ireland All Ireland football final replay between Mayo and Meath. The reasons why this happened will go to the heart of the Connacht champions' challenge this weekend.

Maybe it was inexperience and they'll know better this time around. Maybe it was a critical failure of nerve in which case the outlook is grim, as nerves that have twitched once generally don't improve over two weeks.

The fade out is the most obvious reason why Mayo aren't at home celebrating still but there were other problems along the way that led to the disappointment.

The tactical failure of re deploying James Nallen to mark Trevor Giles stands out - partly because the other two switches between Kenneth Mortimer and Dermot Flanagan, and James Horan and Maurice Sheridan worked so well.

Nallen's stature, marking ability and ability to run at the opposition were all sacrificed while captain Noel Connelly was moved into the less comfortable environment of centre back a gamble that was to prove expensive in the second half. To make bad worse, Nallen's inability to make much impact on Giles's perpetual motion meant that the sacrifice was in vain.

The other big problem on the afternoon was up front. Both attacks were largely ineffective but in Mayo's case this was less excusable. Any team that receives such a generous share of the ball but only manages 10 scores, and five wides, is plainly doing something wrong.

The forwards were shot shy, but frequently the distribution was wretched. David Nestor got free a couple of times to the general indifference of his colleagues - and has subsequently been dropped. Meath contributed to the difficulties by Darren Fay's very effective marking of John Casey and Enda McManus's discipline in staying put at centre back to shut off Casey's approach roads which had been so wide and inviting against Kerry in the semi final.

Colm McManamon's work around the pitch was again significant but more so at the back. Furthermore, his wild distribution occasionally spoiled the effect - and he sometimes performed little Theatre of the Absurd cameos by hoofing the ball into the very space on the 40, he himself had vacated.

Of the two teams, Meath left more strongly feeling that they had underperformed. The two sectors in which they had thrived against Tyrone, in their semifinal, became disaster areas. Even those who reckoned that Meath's midfield wouldn't have things all their own way hardly foresaw the collapse of their challenge.

John McDermott played well but more noticeably in defence and was eclipsed for far too long in the central exchanges. Admittedly he answered the call at the end when buttressed by Colm Brady's introduction, but the team need a steadier supply.

Again, few would have thought that Meath's forwards would make so little impact. Apart from the ubiquitous Giles's now standard contribution, only Brendan Reilly got anywhere near his best form. Reilly showed once more how unflappable his temperament is by surviving a bad first half to pop over three second half points.

Although it went largely unpunished, the creakiness in Meath's half back line was a concern. Colm Coyle, drawn away to the centre too often, left James Horan too much space. Interestingly, one theory about the switch of Horan and Maurice Sheridan that Coyle's conversational marking style might kick start the laid back Horan - became irrelevant as the Mayo wing forward was given as much space as he could want. But having taken his three points by the 22nd minute, he faded.

McManus did well enough but was required to mark space rather his man, with McManamon adopting his usual nomadic stratagems. Paddy Reynolds struggled in the combat for breaking ball and wouldn't have enjoyed the occasion much even if he hadn't been instrumental in giving away the goal.

The initial assessments of the team's mental well being were universally negative for Mayo: another Connacht catastrophe, an All Ireland given away as surely as Galway did with a two man advantage in 1983.

If that was the reality, why were both sets of supporters so gloomy coming out of Croke Park?

It was obvious that Mayo supporters would be keenly aware that the All Ireland had been there for the taking, so it was the depression of the Meath contingent that was more interesting.

After the sparkle of the Tyrone semi final, the performance had been very lack lustre and it seemed genuinely to shock their followers that the team could be so ineffective after apparently completing the hard part of the season defeating both of last year's All Ireland finalists (Dub-

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