Offaly footballers return North to take on Tyrone on Saturday

AFTER their heavy defeat to Derry last Saturday night, Offaly footballers make a return journey North of the border on this Saturday night to take on Tyrone in O'Neill Park, Dungannon.

With four defeats from four Offaly are on the verge of being relegated back to Division 3 of the Allianz Football League after just one season. Things haven't gone well for them from the start of the campaign but last Saturday's capitulation to Derry was extremely disappointing and they will be looking for a positive response when they face Tyrone this weekend.

It must be said the campaign hasn't exactly gone to plan for the home side either.

Relegated from Division 1 last season, they were favourites to go straight back up to the top flight at the first attempt, but barring an unusual sequence of results, they face another season in Division 2 and if they're not careful could be looking over their shoulders to make sure they don't end up in a relegation scrap.

Tyrone began their campaign with a draw at home to Kildare but then lost in their second outing to Derry. They did get a win on the board in round three against Cavan, but slipped up again last weekend when losing to Louth.

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That leaves them with three points on the table and they will be hoping that they can pick up another brace of points when they take on Offaly this Saturday.

Last Saturday's display against Derry was extremely disappointing. Offaly fell 2-4 to 0-0 behind in the early stages and things didn't get any better from there as Derry controlled the game.

Offaly trailed by 2-17 to 0-3 at half time and despite having the wind in the second half they were still outscored by the home side in that period and went down by a 23 point margin, 2-25 to 0-8.

Offaly's management will certainly be looking for a response from the team this weekend. They have been hampered by injuries throughout the campaign but at least in their first three outings they were competive to some degree in their games, but that wasn't the case last Saturday.

Tyrone too will be hoping to bounce back from their defeat to Louth, so that won't make the trip any easier for Offaly.

With championship fast approaching Offaly don't need another demoralising defeat to erode confidence ahead of the summer.

Hopefully last Saturday was an abberation and they can show this weekend that they are better than that.

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