Mayo are Connacht senior football champions for the 43rd time.

James Horan's charges took the spoils today with a battling 0-13 to 0-11 victory over Roscommon at wet and windy Hyde Park. The winners delivered a powerful second-half display, 'winning' the second period by eight points to two to run out deserving champions.

One of their real heroes was young Cillian O'Connor, who kept his cool to convert eight frees during the course of a Man of the Match display.

Roscommon - who made a late change to their starting XV with Sean Purcell in for the injured Stephen Ormsby - played with the strong breeze behind them in the first half and led by 0-9 to 0-5 at the break, thanks largely to a six-point haul from 2010 All Star nominee Donie Shine.

Points from Shine and Senan Kilbride had the defending champions two points to the good after seven minutes.

Nineteen-year-old O'Connor was handed free-taking duties for the visitors and he brought Mayo back into the match when he dropped one over from the hands from in front of the posts with nine minutes played. When full forward Alan Freeman went to ground easily three minutes later, O'Connor popped over another simple free to level the scores.

When Shine clipped over a '45', the Rossies were back in front in the 15th minute and the mercurial No.15 knocked over an excellent point from play off his right boot 90 seconds later to make it double scores at the end of the first quarter, 0-4 to 0-2.

Cathal Cregg spirited the ball through the Mayo defence and fisted it over the bar, moments after Shine had missed what was a relatively-simple free by his own high standards. The conditions were making life difficult for all 30 players and it was no surprise that the football on offer was of the scrappy variety.

O'Connor missed a straightforward free from the ground. Mayo had gone 15 minutes without a score and a handling error from captain Alan Dillon didn't help their cause. Within seconds, at the other end, Shine swivelled superbly to whack over his fourth point across his left shoulder.

A minute later, Andy Moran curled over Mayo's first point from play: 0-6 to 0-3 after 28 minutes. It was back to a two-point game when O'Connor dropped over his third free of the afternoon. But three minutes from the break, wing back Donal Ward stole forward to drill over a seventh Roscommon score.

Shine stroked over a wonderful free off the ground from 50 metres to make it 0-8 to 0-4 and he added another on the stroke of half time, leaving clear daylight between the teams. It could have been even worse for Mayo but Fergal O'Donnell's side were denied a clear '45' before Kevin McLoughlin arced over the final score of the half off the outside of his left foot.

The game was set up nicely for the second half. Mayo would now have the assistance of a considerable wind, so a four-point deficit was far from insurmountable. Encouragingly, they had won the midfield battle in the first half.

Considering the conditions, referee Michael Collins was extremely harsh on O'Connor when he penalised him for taking too long lining up a free from his hands and threw the ball up, but O'Connor kept his composure to clip over his fourth free moments later. Moran's shot from play didn't curl enough to yield a seventh Mayo point.

Ten minutes after the restart, Dillon slipped in behind the Roscommon defence and got on the end of a high delivery to pop over his first score of the day, closing the gap to two. O'Connor knocked over a fourth successive Mayo point, from a free after being taken out by a third-man tackle from sub Cathal Dineen (who was arguably lucky to stay on the pitch as he'd already been booked).

On 50 minutes, Shine blazed a shot over the bar from close range - Roscommon's first score in 19 minutes - when he should have bulged the net after latching onto a weak Kilbride effort that dropped ten yards short. O'Connor's sixth pointed free had the gap down to one with 15 minutes left and Moran followed up with Mayo's sixth wide - a tame effort.

Mayo No.13 O'Connor was having a dream Connacht final debut and he booted over another free from out the field to tie the scores up with eleven minutes remaining - 0-10 each and the momentum now was with the visitors. Mayo botched a goalscoring chance when Freeman over-hit his handpass to Mortimer with the Rossies defence back-pedalling.

O'Connor tapped over his eighth free in the 64th minute to put Mayo ahead for the first time and both sides missed chances before substitute Ger Heneghan won Roscommon a 69th-minute free, which Shine dropped short. The corner forward then had a shot from play clawed down from over the crossbar by vigilant Mayo 'keeper Robert Hennelly.

On the stroke of normal time, Mayo sub Peadar Gardiner made it a two-point game with a fabulous score from play. But Shine tapped over a Roscommon free in the second of three added minutes, setting up a thrilling finale.

On 73 minutes, substitute Enda Varley thumped over the final point of the 2011 Connacht SFC.

Mayo: Robert Hennelly; Keith Higgins, Alan Feeney , Tom Cunniffe; Richie Feeney, Donal Vaughan, Trevor Mortimer; Aidan O'Shea, Seamus O'Shea; Kevin McLoughlin (0-1), Alan Dillon (0-1), Andy Moran (0-1); Cillian O'Connor (0-8), Alan Freeman, Jason Doherty. Subs: Ger Cafferkey, Enda Varley (0-1), Ronan McGarrity, Peadar Gardiner (0-1).

Roscommon: Geoffrey Claffey; Sean McDermott, Niall Carty, Sean Purcell; David Keenan, Peter Domican, Donal Ward (0-1); Michael Finneran, Karol Mannion; Senan O'Grady, Kevin Hughes, Cathal Cregg (0-1); Conor Devaney, Senan Kilbride (0-1), Donal Shine (0-8). Subs: Cathal Dineen, Darren McDermott, Stephen Ormsby, Enda Kenny, Ger Heneghan. Tweet

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