Relieved Offaly dig deep to survive stern Louth examination

ALL-IRELAND champions Offaly lived very dangerously before finishing powerfully to finally banish stern Louth resistance in a first round Leinster U-20 Football Championship tie in Kilcormac's Faithful Fields on Thursday evening.

Leinster U-20 Football Championship

Offaly 3-7
Louth 0-13

Offaly were pushed all the way by a very decent Louth side who were not far away from an upset win. Indeed, the fact that the visitors scored thirteen times compared to ten for Offaly was in some ways a fair reflection of this game but Offaly's three goals trumped everything and got them through to a quarter-final tussle with Carlow next Thursday – it is a home game for Offaly and is likely to be back in Faithful Fields.

Offaly were very relieved to win. With Louth looking like pulling off an upset win, Offaly finally got their intensity levels right in the closing quarter while their main men did exactly what they were needed to do – Lee Pearson, John Furlong, Morgan Tynan and Keith O'Neill all stood up to be counted when Offaly's need was at its most acute late on and they were absolutely pivotal to the win.

Offaly had received bad news on Wednesday when a scan showed that star forward Cormac Egan requires an operation on his injured hamstring and this will rule him out for this championship – manager Declan Kelly stated afterwards that their only interest now is in getting Egan back playing and that his aim is the club season for Tullamore, not Offaly involvement.

Offaly will be hoping for another long campaign, though they have loads of improving to do, individually and collectively. They know from last year when they scraped over Wexford and Westmeath in the opening rounds that things can really mushroom from a slow start and they have scope for improvement. Declan Kelly will have learnt a lot from this game and about what players are up to the challenge but he will be very pleased at the win and the character they had to show to get it.

Louth gave it a very good go, dominating the first twenty minutes and the first fifteen minutes plus of the second half. There was a time in the first half when it seemed they couldn't miss as they got points from all over the place but they couldn't get a goal while Offaly got three, two in the first half and one nineteen minutes into the second half – the second half one from sub Jamie Guing was the decisive score as he finished well after good work by Morgan Tynan and that gave Offaly a 3-5 to 0-11 lead at a crucial stage.

They had been level up to that and Louth were beginning to believe they could win it. Even after Guing's goal, they rallied well and got it back to the minimum with points from Dylan McKeown and Beanon Corrigan (“45”) with four minutes left. Extra time loomed large and Louth had attacks that could have yielded an equaliser but Offaly defended fiercely.

They lifted the siege in injury time and a sensational Lee Pearson break out of defence yielded a Jamie Guing point. Three minutes into injury time, Morgan Tynan worked his way in from the left and fisted over a point that meant Offaly would not be beaten in normal time. Louth had one last desperate attack but John Furlong won a great ball and Offaly were home and dry.

The first half was an entertaining, wide open and keenly contested affair with Louth the better side for the opening twenty minutes but Offaly getting their noses in front at half time, 2-4 to 0-9.

Both sides created ample goal chances in the first half. For Offaly Keith O'Neill drew a good save from Josh Finlay when he should have fisted over while John Furlong punched wide with a great goal chance in the 17th minute after a Darragh Flynn ball.

Offaly had hit the net three minutes earlier when Flynn blasted home after a super turnover by Lee Pearson in defence and a great move that involved Keith O'Neill and John Furlong. That gave them a 1-3 to 0-5 lead and Louth had been good value for their advantage up to that point.

Offaly's second goal came from a Keith Oneill penalty in the 20th minute after Finlay had made a super double save from Marcas Dalton but Ronan McBride picked up the rebound. Offaly were 2-3 to 0-7 up at that stage but Louth should have had a couple of goals themselves – Sean O'Toole had denied Kieran McArdle with an excellent save in the 9th minute and McArdle was also wide with a good chance in the 19th minute.

Late points from Evan Maher and Ben Collier left Louth a point down at the break and they were very much in the game – the quality of their point kicking was a feature of the first half.

The second half started in a similar vein to the first with Louth driving it on. Karl McElroy got two frees to give them the lead by the 37th minute – McElroy had caused Diarmuid Finneran a lot of problems in the first half but the Ballinagar man stuck to his task and got to grips with him in the second half.

Offaly levelled it up with a good Morgan Tynan free and scores were very hard to come by before Guing's goal gave Offaly the initiative.

It was only in the closing ten minutes that Offaly's collective work rate and intensity reached the levels that Declan Kelly would have wanted but the result was the bottom line. Pearson, Furlong, Tynan and O'Neill all stood up to be counted in the second half with Furlong's and Tynan's contribution significant as they had not been at the furnace in the first half.

Jay Sheerin, sub Cathal Ryan, Adam Strong, Marcas Dalton, Darragh Flynn and Jamie Guing were among the other players who impressed for Offaly at different stages.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Lee Pearson (Offaly): Lee Pearson was a major factor in Offaly's win. He was excellent, the one defender really on his game, as Louth posed serious questions early on. He lifted the siege with some great runs out of defence and after losing his way for a spell in the second half, he came good again late on – his run out of defence for Jamie Guing's point in the 60th minute was a real match winning moment and with players with this type of leadership, Offaly could be around for a while yet.

THE SCORERS

Offaly: Jamie Guing 1-1, Morgan Tynan 0-3 (2f), Keith O'Neill (penalty) and Darragh Flynn 1-0 each, Adam Strong, Cormac Delaney and Harry Plunkett (f) 0-1 each.

Louth: Kyle McElroy 0-4 (3f), Brian Brady, Ben Collier and Beanon Corrigan (1 “45”) 0-2 each, Evan Maher, Carl Gillespie (f) and Dylan McKeown 0-1 each.

OFFALY: Sean O'Toole (Shamrocks); Lee Pearson (Edenderry), Diarmuid Finneran (Ballinagar), Tom Hyland (Bracknagh); Geordi O'Meara (Ballinagar), John Furlong (Tullamore), Jay Sheerin (Tullamore); Morgan Tynan (Ballinagar), Adam Strong (Ballinagar); Fionn Dempsey (Bracknagh), Harry Plunkett (Tullamore), Marcus Dalton (Clara); Cormac Delaney (Clara), Keith O'Neill (Clonbullogue), Daragh Flynn (Ferbane). Subs – Cathal Ryan (Daingean) for O'Meara (HT), Jamie Guing (Clonbullogue) for Plunkett (35m), Dylan Kilmurray (Rhode) for Hyland (42m).

LOUTH: Josh Finlay; Ronan McBride, Paraic McKenny, Mark Holohan; James McDonnell, Peter Lynch, Cian Sands; Beanon Corrigan, Evan Maher; Brian Brady, Ben Collier, Kieran McArdle; Sean Reynolds, Kyle McEvoy, Carl Gillespie. Subs – Liam Flynn for Gillespie (HT) Dylan McKeown for Sands (50m), Cillian Taaffe for Holohan (61m).

Referee – Anthony Nolan.