Horan’s Mayo honeymoon ends

But while they were down to 13 men Galway scored 1-1 – with the goal coming via a counter-attack in which the impressive Antaine Ó Laoi prised open the Mayo defence with a delightful through-ball which Johnny Heaney flicked over David Clarke, allowing Danny Cummins to flick it to an empty net.

Having failed to score from play until the 37th minute, Mayo finally got their running game going in the third quarter. Aided by three assists from Aidan O’Shea they kicked six points on the spin in 12 minutes to cut the deficit to one by the 55th minute.

Inexplicably they allowed the momentum to slip as Andy Moran, Fionn McDonagh and Jason Doherty squandered key chances – the latter two coming from frees.

As Mayo’s frustration mounted their shooting became woeful and finally their discipline went awry, as Colm Boyle (twice) and then Lee Keegan gave away needless frees which Shane Walsh tapped over to secure Galway’s second away win.

Not alone did they outscore Mayo 0-3 to 0-2 at the business end of the game, the Tribesmen held them scoreless in the final 20 minutes as Mayo’s consolation points didn’t come until the sixth minute of injurytime.

“At certain stages of matches your character is tested and the two stages tonight was when we got the two black cards when they came back to a point. Sometimes you win the game, sometimes you lose the game, but all we can say is it was important that they showed character,” said Walsh, who started only seven of the players that featured against Dublin in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

After shipping two losses on the spin, Mayo now face a trip to Tralee in two weeks.

Suddenly they’re looking over their shoulders as any ambition of reaching a league final has all but disappeared.

“It will be tough down there, but we look forward to the challenge,” said Horan, whose honeymoon as the latest Mayo messiah has surely come to an end.