We didn't do ourselves justice, says Moran

Not many inter-county managers would have swapped places with Mayo's Mickey Moran yesterday but nonetheless, he still drew pride from his players' display.

A selector for Derry's 1993 All-Ireland-winning side, Moran tasted his first final defeat at Croke Park as Kerry swept clear for a richly deserved 4-15 to 3-5 victory.

Headquarters had been a happy hunting ground for the Connacht champions in the preceeding four weeks, with encouraging wins over Laois and Dublin.

Heartbroken Mayo supporters watched their side fall at the All-Ireland's final hurdle for the fourth time in ten years. Their Kerry counterparts could feel their pain - the Kingdom lost the 2002 and 2005 finals, but yesterday, as Moran admitted, the men from the south were just too good.

He said: "It didn't matter what team you're playing against, if you go ten points down, you're fighting an uphill battle and that was the way it was. I'm proud of the lads but Kerry were by far the better team on the day and deserved their victory.

"The season doesn't matter, it was all about what happened on the day and Kerry are deservedly All-Ireland champions. We are very disappointed that we didn't perform the way we can play.

"It didn't work for us and part of that is due to Kerry too. They made us turn over ball and then there's the wee bit of luck too, the last passes were just deflected or intercepted but at the end of the day, ten points in the first ten minutes, to concede that was just too much," Moran added.

"Kerry weren't going to let us off the hook at that stage. They had the fish caught."

After bagging five wins and a draw in the championship, and guiding Mayo to their second Connacht title in three years, Moran can still reflect on a rewarding first season in charge.

"I'm proud of them. We started trials with hundreds of players and we reached an All-Ireland final and were beaten by a tremendous and exceptionally gifted, talented team.

"We just didn't do ourselves justice - we can play much better than that. You just saw wee glimpses in the first half, but it was too big a gap and the best team won."