RARELY has a championship game ever been decided after 10 minutes, but that was the case in McHale Park yesterday when a ruthless Mayo side put a young and inexperienced Roscommon outfit to the sword.

There was some serious blood-letting here in Castlebar in front of almost 16,000 and it wasn't pretty to witness. No-one likes to see such one-sided games but this was off the radar stuff, absolutely merciless. And cruel to watch from a neutral viewpoint.

It will put Roscommon back big time, they looked too young and too physically small when pitted against this seasoned Mayo side and, worryingly, there were shades of their disastrous league encounter with Armagh last year when the Ulstermen registered 4-21 against them.

On the other hand, Mayo won't have learned all that much either, although their movement looked to be incredible. It was too easy. No team likes to go into a final looking like world beaters.

Roscommon manager Fergie O'Donnell included 11 of the 2006 minor panel on his squad and six in the starting XV and the public took this as a sign that the county's future looks bright. In fairness, they had to give youth a fling.

But this was men against boys. And any other cliché you're having yourself. Roscommon were naive and were clinically and ruthlessly torn apart as Mayo pulled balls out of the skies and sprayed passes around at will. Their dominance was such that they didn't let Roscommon score from play in the first half.

They seriously lacked experience and weren't helped by the fact that they faced a terribly stiff breeze in the first half. On top of that they started so dreadfully. All three combined to leave them facing one of the worst displays in their history. It looked like Mayo could score whenever they chose. They marched down the field at will, finding men, taking passes and raising flags.

After 10 minutes Roscommon should have withdrawn 13 men into their own half, but they chose to maintain a more orthodox approach. They trailed 2-4 to 0-0 after 15 minutes and by 3-10 to 0-1 at the interval. Mayo had so much space to roam in.

But no substitution was made and in some ways O'Donnell deserves credit for not ripping his players' confidence up even more. He waited until the restart before making three changes in five minutes.

The game had barely started when they were down 1-1 to 0-0. Aidan Kilcoyne hit a '45 and seconds later he nabbed a clinical goal after being fed by teen prodigy Aidan O'Shea. A long ball was punted forward by Trevor Howley, two Roscommon defenders, John Nolan and David Casey, collided and the ball broke free and Kilcoyne buried it.

Roscommon were rattled. Four minutes later, Kilcoyne added another sweet '45 with that Johnny Wilkinson style of of his. But Roscommon had no answer to the long ball in. Their hopes of staying in touch were totally killed off after just 13 minutes when corner-back Donal Vaughan was taken out of it after fantastic work by Kilcoyne. Pat Harte stepped up and buried a beast of a penalty to leave Mayo ahead 2-3 to 0-0.

Barry Moran was the Mayo target man every time and Roscommon simply had no answer to him. Kilcoyne, O'Shea and Alan Dillon picked up all of the loose ball. They led by 18 points after 23 minutes after O'Shea banged home the third goal.

After missing two goal chances the visitors finally broke their duck in the 26th minute when Conor Devaney pointed a free. An ironic roar swept around McHale Park. It was embarrassing for any team to be on the receiving end of that, especially such a young side.

Donal Shine hit two frees wide as the crowd struggled to get to grips with what they had just seen. There was an eerie silence around the ground. Teams work hard all year and then something like this happens. An 18 point-lead at the break. No way back.

The second half was better. Brian Higgins got their first score from play after 46 minutes and they forced a few saves from Kenneth O'Malley. But Mayo had long since eased off the pedal. They hit a few more scores as the game faded into the memory banks. And it won't remain there for too long.

Scorers -- Mayo: A Kilcoyne 1-3 (2 '45) A Dillon 0-6 (3f), P Harte 1-1, A O'Shea 1-0, T Mortimer, R McGarrity, P Gardiner 0-2 each, A Moran, M Ronaldson 0-1 each. Roscommon: G Cox, C Devaney (2f) 0-2 each, B Higgins, D Shine (1f), K Mannion 0-1 each

Mayo: K O'Malley; D Vaughan, G Cafferky, K Higgins; P Gardiner, T Howley, A Moran; D Heaney, R McGarrity; P Harte, T Mortimer, A Dillon; A Kilcoyne, B Moran, A O'Shea. Subs: T Parsons for Heaney (53), C Mortimer for Kilcoyne (60), M Ronaldson for Harte (62), K McLoughlin for Vaughan (67), BJ Padden for Dillon (67)

Roscommon: G Claffey; R Domican, J Nolan, P Kelly; S McDermott, D Flynn, D Casey; M Finneran, B Higgins; G Cox, K Mannion, D Shine; C Devaney, C McHugh, J Dunning. Subs: P Gleeson for Flynn (40), K McKeague for Kelly (43), F Cregg for Finneran (45), D O'Gara for McHugh (50), P Duignan for Nolan (50)

Referee: B Crowe (Cavan)

- DAMIAN LAWLOR in Castlebar