The James Horan era in Mayo began with a comfortable victory over New York in last night's Connacht FBD League final at Rockland GAA's newly developed grounds.

Mayo 0-19
New York 0-7

However, the new Mayo manager didn't make the trip owing to his club Ballintubber's involvement in next Sunday's Mayo SFC final against Castlebar Mitchels. Instead, senior county board officials took charge of the team.

With free-taker Kevin Killeen and Aidan O'Shea to the fore, the visitors raced into a 0-5 to 0-0 lead after just 10 minutes. Two points from Armagh native Johnny Murtagh got New York up-and-running and he added three further points (two from frees), while Seamus Toner was also on the scoresheet as the Exiles battled back to restore parity on 0-6 each at half-time.

When Toner kicked New York into the lead for the first time three minutes after the restart, an upset looked to be on the cards, but Mayo responded with four unanswered in the next eight minutes from Enda Varley (two), Kevin McLoughlin and Jimmy Killeen to assert their authority once again.

The Westerners, for whom Ger Cafferkey, Trevor Howley, O'Shea and top-scorer Killeen impressed, added nine unanswered points thereafter to run out comfortable winners.

Mayo: David Clarke; Kevin Keane, Ger Cafferkey, Chris Barrett; Peader Gardiner, Trevor Howley, Shane Nally (0-01); Ger McDonagh, Trevor Mortimer (0-02); Jimmy Killeen (0-07), Andy Moran (0-01), Kevin McLoughlin (0-02); Enda Varley (0-04), Aidan O'Shea (0-01), Mark Ronaldson. Subs: Lee Keegan (0-01) for Nally 38 mins, James Burke for Keane 41 mins.

New York: Alan Hearty; Paul Lambe, Aiden Power, Lonon Maguire; Alan Raftery, Brendan McGourty, Joe Bell; Kevin Smith. Pat Madden; Jason Kelly, Dan Doona, Eoghan Carew; James Moynagh, John Murtagh (0-05), Seamus Toner (0-02). Subs: Dermot Keane for McGourty Half Time, Kevin McGeeney hf time, Alan O'Hara for Toner 35 mins, Sean Gavin for Doona 51 mins. Tweet

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