“We’re very proud of the achievement, as are all the players”, he said afterwards. “Regardless of anything else, winning four on the trot, beating every team on every occasion over the last four years is something we're extremely proud of and we’re delighted with the victory today.”

More than a few commentators were surprised to see Horan elect to line Aidan O’Shea out in the half forward line, but the Breaffy man was hugely influential in this tie and understandably after a game in which O’Shea devoured countless breaks from kickouts , Horan singled out the former All Star midfielder for praise.

"Look it, Aidan O'Shea is a very clever player and that's his main attribute. It mightn't always be associated with him but he's a very clever player, got into the right positions today and pulled what was meant to be a defensive structure asunder a little bit. That was key for us and consequently we were able to get good ball into our inside line.”

Perhaps the only stage when Galway looked like they would make a contest of this game was when they reduced the deficit to four points at the start of the second half, but just as they did when they trailed against Roscommon in the previous round, Mayo stayed composed and calmly worked their way back into a controlling position.

"Yeah, four points and they came down straight through the middle once or twice. Nobody on the field panicked, there was no sense of 'Jesus Christ, here they come'. It was just kept coming, kept going. We knew we would figure out a way to get there.

"These are very seasoned players, they play what they see and they make the decisions based on what's in front of them, whether it's an attacking set-up or a defensive set-up. Whatever it is, they're getting very comfortable with it.”

For Galway, a Connacht Final defeat will never go down as a positive outcome but manager Alan Mulholland tried to see the upside of the situation when he analysed the game after the match, particularly in light of the heavy defeat his side sustained against the same opponents in Pearse Stadium last year.

“Take the score line alone, there is a bit of improvement there (from 2013). Generally the feeling in the camp is that we are moving in the right direction. There was a small bit of wariness or nervousness in the first half and we didn’t take the game to Mayo. Once they realised: look, we are able for this in the second half, we showed that we can match them. But they are seasoned campaigners and we need to match this for seventy minutes. That’s the trick.”

This was only the second occasion in the history of the Connacht football championship that a team scored sixteen times or more and lost a Connacht final, but Mulholland still felt that his team needed to add a goal or two to give themselves a real chance in this tie.

“Sixteen points was probably never going to be enough, if we scored a goal or two we would have put it up to them a bit more. It was 16 scores to 17 scores at the end, that showed that we had a decent portion of the play today. If it wasn’t for some missed chances, hitting the underside of the bar after half-time, missing the penalty , we would have been closer. We were disappointed with the goals we let in as well; it was one of our goals to keep them goalless and if we had, the game would have had a different complexion.”

Galway now move on to play Tipperary in the next round and Mulholland also cited how his team are still deep into the championship and so in a very good position.

“One more game and we are in Croke Park and we are where we would have been if we had won today. Last year was a bit more difficult; we had three or four qualifier games ahead of us to get to Croke Park whereas now we have one game and we are back to where we want to be. So the mood is reasonably positive in there.”