Mayo's minor footballers made it a double celebration for their followers at Hyde Park yesterday when they easily retained their provincial crown against disappointing home opponents.

Roscommon led 0-7 to 0-4 at the break but their three-point interval lead never looked enough, as they faced into a strong breeze in the second half.

During the first half dominated by the home side, Mayo centre-forward Jarlath O'Malley kept his side in touch with three well-taken scores. Roscommon has at one stage stretched their advantage to five points 0-7 to 0-2, but the Louisburgh sharpshooter responded with two well-taken points in the closing stages of the half and Roscommon goalkeeper, Christopher O'Dowd, made a crucial save from Martin McNicholas.

On the re-start O'Malley took up where he had left off and with only two minutes of the second half gone he had reduced the gap to the minimum with two more well-executed points.

Full-forward Gabriel Walsh levelled the scores in the 13th minute and Mayo ded ahead for the first time when McNicholas found the range four minutes later.

Wind-half back Alan Costello had stretched the Mayo lead when Roscommon - until then scoreless for the second half - were offered a ray of hope. However, when right corner forward David Henry was put through the Mayo defence by Gary Cox he could only find the side-netting with the goal-scoring chance.