London's bid to end their 28 year barren championship record once again came unstuck at Ruislip as visitors Mayo swept to a non-too flattering 1-18 to 0-8 Connacht SFC preliminary round win. The homesters simply couldn't match the favourites' poise and panache going forward and, in particular, had no one of the class of Conor Mortimer and Ciaran McDonald. The former was the man of the match with a splendid 1-8 over the 70 minutes-plus while the work-hungry McDonald helped himself to three points. London were their usual gutsy, determined selves but lacked the composure, fitness and football nous to cause an upset for the books. The early part of the game set the tone for the match as a whole with London labouring to make good their first half wind advantage. It was the visitors who forced the pace for the most part and very soon the writing was on the wall. With Ciaran McDonald playing a wandering full-forward role to a tee, the westerners were full value for their 0-7 to 0-3 lead after 25 minutes of play. Mayo were refreshingly efficient in the last third of the play with all bar one of their forwards getting their name on the score sheet. The aforementioned McDonald notched two of his side's early points but the only mystery was how Mayo failed to bag a goal with all their possession. The closest they came to bagging a major was when Conor Mortimer flicked the ball home in the 14th minute but the referee disallowed the 'goal' because of a square ball infringement. London never looked like repeating their last Connacht SFC triumph when they upset Leitrim in 1977. Mayo's last visit to Ruislip for championship fare was in 1996 when they handed their hosts a 1-11 to 1-5 defeat. By half-time this time around, the red and greens held a similar advantage with McDonald and Conor Mortimer both notching a personal tally of three points. In a relatively impressive performance from the front men, Mayo's first half total was also augmented by scores from Ger Brady and Alan Dillon. For their part, London were more perspiration than inspiration but fine points in particular by Pat Burke and Jack Murphy at least gave them hope. Backed by the wind on the restart, London rolled up their sleeves, big time, in a bid to eat into Mayo's 0-10 to 0-4 half-time lead. However in a stop-start third quarter, the best the Exiles could do was all but match their opponents point for point. With 14 minutes of the second half gone, Mayo were still well positioned to safely avoid the notorious banana skin as they sought to extend their 0-12 to 0-5 lead. Slowly but surely, London's faint hopes of causing an upset dissipated. Mayo seemed to be able to engineer scoring chances almost at will and with the score standing at 0-15 to 0-7, London clearly needed goals to rescue the situation. Those goals never looked like coming and it took a great save from London 'keeper McBrearty to stop the Connacht men adding to Mortimer's 56th minute goal which firmly put the game beyond the hosts and Mayo on track to take on Leitrim in the provincial semi-final on June 25th. Mayo - J Healy, D Geraghty, L O'Malley, K Higgins, P Kelly, J Nallen, P Gardiner 0-1, D Heaney, P Harte, A Moran 0-2, G Brady 0-1, A Dillon 0-1, C Mortimer 1-8, C McDonald 0-3, A O'Malley. Subs: B Padden for Dillon, D Brady for Kelly, K O'Neill 0-1 for A O'Malley, B Moran 0-1 for Harte, M Conroy for Moran London - B McBearty, P Callaghan, C Beirne, P Earley, P McConigley 0-1, D McKenna, A McLernon, K Waldron, E Brennan 0-1, P Quirke 0-2, J Murphy 0-1, B Solan 0-1, C Foody 0-1, S McKenzie-Smith 0-1, W O'Sullivan. Subs: P McDermott for Quirke Referee - J McKee (Armagh) Tweet

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