Leinster Senior Football Championship first round: Offaly 2-21 Longford 2-13
NINE years of failure in the Leinster Senior Football Championship for the Offaly footballers were brought to a spectacular end at O’Connor Park on Sunday when a rampant Faithful side put Longford to the sword in glorious conditions at the Tullamore venue.
The two sides met at the same stage and location last year when the home side let a commanding seven-point lead slip, meaning that Offaly went into Sunday’s game without a victory in their home province since beating Carlow in 2007 - but according to key forward Niall McNamee, they were never going to let that run extend any further.
“I think that pressure was there over the last number of years but, over the last 18 months, we’ve prepared really well and got stronger,” he said.
“We got promoted out of Division Four last year, very unlucky not to get promoted this year, probably should have gone up, we were mentally and physically ready for this game and I think we proved it.”
Their mental strength was certainly tested early on when a speculative shot from Barry McKeon took an unusually high bounce over the head of Offaly ’keeper Alan Mulhall and into the net - but they replied in the best possible fashion, raising a green flag of their own through an excellent run and finish from Graham Guilfoyle. Longford led by 1-6 to 1-4 through a Robbie Smyth point in the 18th minute, but Offaly replied with some scintillating play and scored the next 10 points in-a-row, all bar one from open play.
Offaly manager Pat Flanagan said afterwards: “I’ve always felt that Offaly had good footballers, even when I wasn’t involved I always thought that Offaly were better than what they were producing. I still think that this team is way off what they can get to, I wouldn’t say that they’re even at 60 per cent of where they can go.”
Eoin Carroll was combative and competitive for Offaly, demonstrated to great effect when he pulled down a looping high ball and burst through two tackles to set up Niall Smith for a decisive goal with 15 minutes remaining. Longford replied in kind with a goal of their own through Smyth, but they never looked like reeling in an Offaly side that continued to add some spectacular points right up until the final whistle.
Manager Denis Connerton was quick to concede that his side were outplayed throughout the contest, but he also claimed that his side had been hampered in their preparations. Work at Pearse Park in Longford meant that Tullamore hosted a tie which Longford were due to play at home.
“We only had one challenge match coming into this whereas Offaly would have had four,” said Connerton.
“We were due to play Tipperary on the Bank Holiday Monday, but they couldn’t just field a team that weekend. So preparations were not ideal. The better team won and Offaly were the better team today, but home advantage would have been huge. We’ve won seven matches in Longford this year, it would have been a big help to us.”
MATCH STATS
Offaly: A Mulhall; S Pender, B Darby, N Darby; E Rigney, P Cunningham (0-2), J O’Connor (0-1); E Carroll (0-1), N Smith (1-1); J Moloney (0-1), N McNamee (0-4), M Brazil (0-1); B Allen (0-4, 0-2 free), N Dunne (0-4, 0-1 45, 0-1 free), G Guilfoyle (1-0); Subs: A Sullivan (0-2) for Brazil (53), S Doyle for Allen (67), N Bracken for Dunne (68), C Donohue for B Darby (71), J Gethings for Guilfoyle (74).
Longford: P Collum; A Farrell, B Gilleran, D Brady; D Gallagher (0-1), B McElligott, B O’Farrell; D Masterson, M Quinn (0-1 free); P McKeon, J McGivney (0-4), D Reynolds; R Smyth (1-5, 0-2 free), B Kavanagh, B McKeon (1-1); Subs: P McGee for Farrell (h-t), M Brady for P McKeon (h-t), C P Smyth (0-1) for Reynolds (h-t), R Connor for Gallagher (53), M Hughes for Kavanagh (59), B Farrell for O’Farrell (62).
Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow).
