The Mayo County Board will make every effort to clear the name of defender Ray Connelly following his controversial straight red card during Sunday's Connacht football final. Connelly was sent off 12 minutes from time in Dr Hyde Park for his role in an incident involving his own goalkeeper Peter Burke and Roscommon forward Frankie Dolan.

While Burke was preparing for a kick-out, he fended off Dolan. Connelly then intervened and Dolan fell to the ground clutching his face. Referee Seamus McCormack decided to send off Connelly after consultation with the umpire behind the Mayo goal.

"I think the television pictures show quite clearly that Ray Connelly didn't strike Frankie Dolan in the face," said Mayo county spokesperson Aidan Brennan yesterday.

"We await the referee report on this, but we will be seeking a personal appearance for Ray before the Games Administration Committee if it is necessary.

"There was some pushing going on and we're not trying to incriminate Burke but it's quite obvious what happened. I believe Dolan himself tried to approach the referee to clear up the matter after Ray was red-carded.

"Of course the referee only had a split second to decide and he had to act in good faith with his umpire. But I think the back of Burke would have obstructed the view as well."

Part of Mayo's appeal is the fact that Connelly's suspension would rule him out of the fourth-round qualifier game on the weekend of July21st-22nd. As beaten provincial finalists, Mayo will draw one of the winners of this Saturday's third round and a win there would put them into the new All-Ireland quarter-final series.

"I think the GAC have shown themselves to be fair in matters like this," added Brennan. "And there is a definite case here. Video evidence may be used if necessary and Ray, like his brother Noel, has never been known as a dirty player. He worked very hard to get back from injury this year and any sort of dirty play would be totally out of character.

"Of course he shouldn't have been pushing around in there in the first place but it was certainly no worse than what we saw Vinnie Murphy do for Dublin a couple of weeks ago.

" The other point is well is that it could have turned the game because Ray was doing a lot of clearing up at corner back up to that point. But Roscommon proved that it's not over until it's over."

Video evidence has proved successful in clearing players of controversial incidents in recent years, most notably with Meath's Ollie Murphy in the latter stages of last year's National League. He was reported for a head-butting incident involving Derry's Sean Martin Lockhart but video footage produced by Meath at Murphy's GAC hearing cleared him of the charge.

Despite the dramatic nature of Gerry Lohan's late goal and Mayo's narrow loss, and despite the disappointment of losing a provincial title that many observers felt they would win, the players are still in good spirits. The showers in Dr Hyde Park took a while to warm up and that left the players sitting around a little longer than usual. But that seemed to help raise the heads.

"None of the players were crying over it. They sat around and chatted for a while and realised that they still have their chance.

"In the past it would have been September or October before they saw football again but this is a whole new championship and the players have to show a new mentality.

"A lot of them believe that they played the better football and now they have a chance to bounce back. The other point that was made is that one win in the qualifier round would put us back at the same stage as Roscommon. That's not the worst position to be in."