Offaly denied victory by controversial injury time goal for Meath

OFFALY 1-10

MEATH 1-10

Offaly’s hopes of collecting their first win in Division 2 ended in the most dramatic and controversial circumstances on Saturday afternoon in Tullamore.

A last-minute Joey Wallace goal broke Offaly hearts at the death, despite strong calls for a square ball. Niall McNamee’s goal late on looked as if it had won the game for Offaly, but Wallace broke Offaly hearts. The draw leaves Offaly bottom of the group still, but with four games left, there is plenty yet to play for. John Maughan will take plenty of positives from the game, but it will certainly feel more like a loss for The Faithful.

Offaly 1-10

Meath 1-10.

Offaly played with a strong Winter breeze in the first half and Meath certainly struggled to gain any foothold on the game with the Offaly defenders enjoying a rather dominant period in the opening exchanges.

However, Meath did manage to open the scoring through their free taker Shane Walsh after three minutes of play. It didn’t take Offaly long to respond and they were level one minute later through Jack Bryant when a Mark Abbot cross-field ball found the Shamrocks forward who did well to turn and point.

Offaly then took the lead 10 minutes in when Niall McNamee pointed from a close-range free, but they were particularly wasteful in possession, giving it away on numerous occasions.

Perhaps the strength of the wind was evident in O’Connor Park midway through the first half when Shane Walsh ballooned a routine 20 yard free, left and wide. They called upon goalkeeper Harry Hogan to take the next one and he slotted it to level proceedings.

Goal chances were very limited in the first half, but Offaly had a golden opportunity to hit the net 21 minutes in. Ruairí McNamee took a quick free and floated a beautiful long ball into his cousin Niall, and he turned and shot but his attempt rattled off the crossbar and over as the Rhode stalwart was made settle for a point.

At the other end and just three minutes later, Meath also had a golden opportunity to raise a green flag. Shane Walsh combined well with Thomas O’Reilly and O’Reilly looked certain to score, but for a wonderful block from Colm Doyle and Offaly subsequently cleared the danger.

Jordan Morris drew Meath level with a close range free, but Offaly goalkeeper Paddy Dunican restored Offaly’s slight lead.

Meath were beginning to dominate, and they actually took the lead with two frees from Morris and another from goalkeeper Hogan to give them a one-point lead as we headed for stoppage time.

Offaly rallied late on in the half and two points from Dylan Hyland and Mark Abbot gave them a one-point lead at the break. The lead along with a black card for substitute Jack O’Connor just before Fergal Kelly’s half time whistle gave the Faithful real hope for the second half.

Meath were wasteful early in the second half and they dropped a couple of balls short, and Hogan also drilled a free wide.

They had a goal chance seven minutes in when Matthew Costello bounded down on goals, but his shot was excellently saved by Dunican who spread himself well to deny the Meath attacker.

Dunican’s save seemed to swing momentum in favour of Offaly and they immediately worked it up to Niall McNamee who fired over. Dylan Hyland added his second of the day to increase Offaly’s lead to three with 44 minutes on the clock.

Meath responded accordingly and they had it back down to the minimum after just four minutes. Donal Keogan’s drilled point was their first of the day from play and Morris put one in it with a beautiful curling effort off his left foot.

It was score for score for the following 10 minutes with Hyland trading points twice with Eoin Harkin and Morris to still leave the one-point deficit in it and Morris’ fisted point with eight minutes left on the clock made it 0-10 to 0-10.

With the game in the melting pot, Offaly hit the net. Keith O’Neill, Anton Sullivan and Niall McNamee all combined, and it was McNamee who found himself on the end of a terrific move to bury the ball to the net to give Offaly a three-point advantage.

Meath threw the kitchen sink at the game late on and they almost had a goal. They broke at pace straight down the middle and Jordan Morris was denied by another terrific Dunican save.

However, Meath hung in there and they were eventually rewarded, albeit in controversial circumstances. Ronan Jones floated a long ball in on top of a number of bodies in the square. Dunican pulled off another save but the ricochet fell straight into the path of Joey Wallace who bundled the ball home. There were several protests from the Offaly camp calling for a square ball, however upon consultation with his umpires, Kelly awarded the goal, much to the dismay of the Offaly team and fans.

Dunican’s subsequent kickout proved to be the final kick, and it ended all level with Offaly’s hearts broken right at the death.

SCORERS:

OFFALY: Niall McNamee 1-3 (0-1f), Dylan Hyland 0-4, Jack Bryant, Paddy Dunican (‘45’), Mark Abbott all 0-1 each.

MEATH: Jordan Morris 0-4 (0-2f), Joey Wallace 1-0, Harry Hogan 0-2f, Shane Walsh (F), Eoin Harkin, Donal Keogan, Jason Scully 0-1 each.

TEAMS:

OFFALY: Paddy Dunican; Declan Hogan, Kieran Dolan, Niall Darby; Cian Donohue, James Lalor, Colm Doyle; Bill Carroll, Jordan Hayes; Mark Abbot, David Dempsey, Dylan Hyland; Jack Bryant, Niall McNamee, Ruairí McNamee. Subs: Cathal Donoghue for Cian Donohue (21 mins), Anton O’Sullivan for Cathal Donoghue (51 mins), Keith O’Neill for Jack Bryant (58 mins), Cathal Flynn for Mark Abbot (70 mins), Cormac Egan for Ruairí McNamee (72 mins).

MEATH: Harry Hogan; Robin Clarke, Eoin Harkin, Jordan Muldoon; Cathal Hickey, Shane McEntee, Donal Keogan; Padraig Harnan, Ronan Jones; Jason Scully, Thomas O’Reilly, Matthew Costello; Cillian O’Sullivan, Shane Walsh, Jordan Morris. Subs: Jack O’Connor for Cathal Hickey inj (17 mins), Ronan Ryan for Robin Clarke inj (30 mins), Eamonn Wallace for Thomas O’Reilly (51 mins), Joey Wallace for Killian O’Sullivan (53 mins), James McEntee for Matthew Costello (67 mins).

Referee: Fergal Kelly (Longford)