Murphy glad to see Offaly back on the right road after Down 'downer'

WHATEVER about the team, the nature of Offaly's defeat by Down in their last National Football League game certainly had an adverse impact on supporters.

With promotion to Division 2 within reach, Offaly collapsed in the second half of a bad 1-18 to 0-9 defeat and supporters let their feet do the talking by staying away from Pearse Park in their thousands for Sunday's Leinster Senior Football Championship opener against Longford.

One of the smallest Offaly crowds in years made the journey to Longford where Offaly did well to edge a real dog eat dog championship game by 1-12 to 1-11.

Offaly showed great character to tough out the win and manager Martin Murphy spoke about the work they did in the past two weeks after that and stated that the sudden death of his predecessor Liam Kearns hit the squad like a tonne of bricks that day.

“ We had done a good bit of work over the last fortnight to try and get a bit more momentum going after the Down game. The lads really pulled out all the stops, training went very well and we came here with grreat hope that we would reproduce what we were doing in training here on the field. I think it came to fruition somewhat. It mightn't have been the prettiest of games at times but the lads worked hard, stuck to their guns.

“They brought a bit more intensity into the game and the defence in the last five or six minutes was awesome. The blocks and the pressure they put on Longford lads who were chasing the game was fantastic. I am very proud of them.”

The Gracefield man admitted they focused on their defence in the past couple of weeks.

“We have worked on it. We have only had three training sessions and we have worked intensely on our defence. In fairness, it has shown today. Work done and loads more work to do. Hopefully we can improve a little bit more going into the quarter-final.”

How hard was it to pick them up after the nature of the Down defeat?

“It was a small bit of a downer all right. I'd say the previous two weeks had caught up on them a little bit and the drain and strain that had been on them came to the fore. We were poor. We knew ourselves going away from the dressing room that evening after having a bit of a chat that we were a better team than that. We somewhat let down the Offaly supporters that day in Tullamore and we came here today hoping to give them something to cheer about again.

“That is what we have done. We knew coming here today, it was going to be a tight game and you never come to Pearse Park with the surety that you are going to win the game. We are delighted we have got out of here with a one point win and onwards and upwards.”

Now Offaly have two weeks to prepare for Meath at home and Murphy is very happy that they have another championship game rather than a long wait for the Tailteann Cup.

“That is no harm and it's good to keep them all together. It would have been a travesty for us if we had lost today. You are looking at a five week break really until the Tailteann Cup and keeping lads motivated for that period of time without competitive football would have been a little bit of a hard task. We will get back to the drawing board on Wednesday night and that has lifted the spirits greatly within the camp today.

“To a man, even the subs that came on, everyone played a major part in that victory. I am very proud of them.”

Peter Cunningham was superb at the heart of an excellent Offaly defence but the manager saluted the whole team.

“You could pick anyone of the fifteen that started today, they were awesome but Peter stood up and played a leader's role as did four or five other lads. Declan Hogan, you could say Jack McEvoy in the middle of the field was very good, Conor McNamee battled hard when he got to grips with Darren Gallagher. Up front, the lads did the business and worked hard.

“I know a lot of people were probably looking at the concession of the kickouts but we had a plan coming here today and it worked.”

He is hopeful that they will give Meath a real run.

“There is always a chance. It is a game a lot of people and the purists will say that Meath should come out on top. We will go there confident having played a championship game. They will be coming there without having played an intense game like that but having said that, you have to respect Meath. They have huge tradition like ourselves but probably in a better place from our respective positions in the league. We will go there to Tullamore and we will give it a good rattle.”