Offaly focused on not repeating past mistakes against exiles in Tailteann Cup

OFFALY got as favourable a draw as they could have hoped for in the preliminary quarter-finals of the Tailteann Cup but they will still be on the highest state of alert for the visit of New York to Tullamore next Saturday.

After last year's horrific defeat against another team of exiles, London, Offaly will be taking absolutely nothing for granted and will definitely be putting their best foot forward.

They will be treating New York with absolute respect, fully aware that they will be very well prepared, hungry for a big win and capable of punishing a haphazard Offaly display.

It means that Offaly won't be availing of any temptation to experiment and give games to players who haven't been seeing much action – or at least not unless they open a decent gap and there is every chance that this won't happen.

There are players on the panel who have got very little game time this year. Sub goalie Sean O'Toole, Cathal Donoghue, Oisin Keenan-Martin, Shane O'Toole-Greene and Morgan Tynan have seen almost no action in recent weeks – Ballinagar's Geordi O'Meara was a new addition to the subs bench for last Saturday's defeat by Laois and would not have expected to be thrown in. Marcas Dalton has seen more game time than these but it has been limited in recent weeks as well.

It is great to see players willing to stay on a panel even if they are not getting the opportunities they would like and it would be great to see some of them getting their chances. However, all the indications are that Offaly will be sticking with the tried and tested and won't be making any big changes for this one.

Dylan Hyland, Ruari McNamee and Aaron Kellaghan came in as subs in last week's last gasp defeat to Laois, when Offaly conceded a very careless late penalty and this resulted in them finishing runners-up instead of top of the group and having to play a preliminary quarter-final – though at least they stayed ahead of Laois on scoring difference and have the benefit of a home one.

It also means that Offaly will be away in a quarter-final if they do beat New York and will face a tougher game against one of the group winners, Kildare, Limerick or Fermanagh – Wicklow topped their group on scoring difference as Offaly ended up paying a price for not beating Waterford by as much as they should have in round 2.

Repeat pairings will be avoided in the quarter-finals if possible – Limerick or Fermanagh are very beatable and while Kildare are now the Tailteann Cup favourites, Offaly have already beaten them twice this year and won't be one bit afraid of them.

Offaly, however, won't be looking one bit past New York on Saturday. Diarmuid Egan is likely to miss the rest of the Tailteann Cup campaign after pulling his hamstring again but it looks like an injury to his flying younger brother Cormac is not as bad as initially feared. He missed the Laois game after hurting his quad at training during the week and at least it is not a hamstring injury as he had a lot of trouble with them a couple of years ago. The extent of his injury will be determined this week but it will possibly be a short term one.

Offaly would probably have beaten Laois on Saturday last with Cormac playing but will be giving him time to get it right and not rushing him back for this one. Rory Egan took his place last Saturday and while he is not as fast going forward as Cormac, he is a very capable, steady defender who is good on the ball.

Dylan Hyland has seen his action restricted in recent weeks with a groin injury and it is hampering him but he will see some game time and he came on in Newbridge and in the previous win over Waterford.

Keith O'Neill missed the Waterford game but started last Saturday and was outstanding in the first half in particular as he ran the Laois defence ragged.

Offaly's youngest player Cillian Bourke excited the senses with a great man of the match display in Newbridge – he is starting his Leaving Certificate this week but is likely to be available for games, though his training load will be understandably curtailed.

Offaly have been going okay in the Tailteann Cup without firing on all cylinders. They are 100% better than last year but will still have to improve if they are to win it. As things stand, it doesn't look like they are playing well enough to win it but knockout football will dictate everything and they could click into gear in the blink of an eye.

They need to be very clinical and ruthless against New York and they were very deficient in this regard against Waterford and Laois. They started well in both games but missed too much, lacking a killer instinct – Laois punished them for this and they kept Waterford in the game almost the whole way as well as not beating them by enough.

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New York won't be simple and will make life very difficult for Offaly but the home side would still want to be beating them and not giving them any glimmer. They certainly don't want to let them scent blood the way London did last year when they produced the game of their lives. Offaly should win and it would be nice to see them doing it the easy rather than the hard way.