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I got to see these lads for the first time this year last night, and I have to say I was quite impressed with the talent on show, and with what Paschal Kelleghan and his management team are doing. Now it was a shadow Westmeath team (no Marist players and several other key men absent) and the difference in motivation was obvious - but even so Offaly played really well here, defending tenaciously but with discipline, and showing great potency in attack, albeit doing the vast amount of damage with the wind in the first half.

The half time score was Offaly 2-13 Westmeath 0-1, finished 2-16 to 0-3.

The only black mark was an injury to Adam Mahon at the end of the first half, as he was definitely very impressive, and a red card for Cillian Kiely as well - shown for two yellow cards in the space of around five minutes.

Pretty much all of the attack showed up well, but I'd also give a heartfelt tip of the cap to James Lalor (Raheen) at corner back. I don't think he lost one 50/50 ball all night, tackled really well, never gave his man space and always produced a simple layoff to a colleague. It was the kind of efficient corner back play that is so vital and yet so rare.

Definitely they'll be tested a lot more by Cork on Saturday (league semi-final, scheduled for 1pm in Clonbullogue) but they are worth your support if you can get there.

Teams and Scorers:

OFFALY: Cain Brereton; James Lalor, Aaron Whelan, Paul O’Toole; Jack Egan, Adam Mahon (0-1), Jack McNamara; Cillian Kiely, David Maloney (0-1); Ryan Heavin (0-2), Adam Mangan, Jack Walsh; Rúairí McNamee (1-3), Shane Dolan (0-5, 0-4f), Shane Tierney (0-4).
Subs: Ciarán Farrell for Mahon (30 mins).

WESTMEATH: Joe Hyland; Darragh Healy, Israel Ilunga, Boidu Sayeh (1-0 og); Eoin Fox, Matthew Darling, Seán Quinn; Sam Duncan, Fergal Hynes; Cathal Daly, Ciarán Doyle, Niall Gavin (0-2f); David Fox, Joe Halligan (0-1f), Darren Keena.
Subs: Jack Penrose for E Fox (27 mins), Darragh Clinton for Keena (29), Brandon Carey for Daly (48 – Black Card), Conor Kane for Quinn (51), Bobby Gonoud for D Fox (51), Morgan Mealiffe for Gavin (53).

REFEREE: Patrick Maguire (Longford)

Lone Shark wrote: The half time score was Offaly 2-13 Westmeath 0-1, finished 2-16 to 0-3.

How many minutes was the 2nd half?

Have seen these guys play all their games and shown improvement match after match.
Their attitude has been professional in training and in all games.
Brillant work done by Pascal and his crew , big test tomorrow and please support if you have a spare couple of hours.

Bord na Mona man wrote:

Lone Shark wrote: The half time score was Offaly 2-13 Westmeath 0-1, finished 2-16 to 0-3.

How many minutes was the 2nd half?

Thirty, oddly. Westmeath had the wind and could have scored a good bit more in the third quarter after Cillian Kiely was sent off, but they kicked six wides between the 35th and 45th minute, admittedly a lot of that down to good pressure from the Offaly lads.

Offaly took over then again in the last quarter and kicked the last three points, holding Westmeath scoreless in that time, which was probably as impressive as anything else they did in the game.

Ive been saying this a while now about our football development squads that are overseen by Alan Mulhall which are in marked contrast to the hurling development squads.... From outside the county, our current minor team would be considered one of the better teams in the country let alone Leinster, going on results through the development squads in the last few years. Only Dublin and Kildare would be considered better in Leinster but we'd be capable of beating them on any given day as our lads would have beaten them (Kildare and Dublin) fairly often at development squad level in previous years. When doing work in Dublin a few months ago a Dub in the know was asking about the Offaly minors of this year and expected them to be good, suggesting Dublin would be doing well to beat them. Longford would also be considered good in Leinster at minor this year. That said Westmeath would be quite poor at this level and when missing a few would be very poor. A loss to Clare last weekend may have knocked us out of the League (not sure) but Tullamore CBS containing a few of the Offaly lads were also in action that day.

Offaly would be expected to reach a Leinster final in next two years and failure to get there would be considered an underachievement unless being beat by Dubs or Kildare along the way. The present minors won a leinster blitz at U14 level beating dubs and Kildare in the process and last years U16 team won the majority of the games they played in the last few years (well over 80%) and won two trophies last year - Leinster blitz and Fr Manning cup which would be considered the most prestigious U16 competition in the country. There is a serious platform there for success and the talent is there to make a return to success at Leinster minor level. Here is hoping that finally the future is going to be a little bit brighter than it has been.

Offaly 1-9 Cork 1-8........Got across to this game today and Offaly were fully worth the win. Finished 1 9 to 1-8. and really, Offaly should have won by more. They missed 2 easy goal chances in either half and coughed up a few handy scores. Offaly finished much stronger than they started in terms of personnel on the pitch and positioning. with forwards played in forwards and backs played as backs.

I hate the way we sometimes feel in Offaly that we have to be negative to beat the stronger counties. The seniors are too much like this and Kellaghan has been known to be quite negative tactic wise in the past. Lets be clear here.....These young lads fear nobody and have beaten the best teams in the country in the last few years through the development squads, yet today we started with about 12 players behind the ball when playing with a reasonable breeze and invited cork on. As a result we were behind at half time by 5 or 6 points by virtue of our negative approach..... In the second half we took them on more and but for greediness by a few of the forwards in front of goal and some poor free taking, we would have won by 6 or 7.

I thought the full back and centre back that came in were excellent today, as was Adam Mangan and Jack Walshe. The midfield grew tired as the game went on and were a little out of it towards the end but battled hard all through. Lets not be in any doubt here, This team will be favourites to win this competition now and has the potential and talent to win a Leinster Championship once they turn up with the right attitude.... which under the present management, seems to be happening.... well done to all concerned

jimbob17 wrote:Offaly 1-9 Cork 1-8........Got across to this game today and Offaly were fully worth the win. Finished 1 9 to 1-8. and really, Offaly should have won by more. They missed 2 easy goal chances in either half and coughed up a few handy scores. Offaly finished much stronger than they started in terms of personnel on the pitch and positioning. with forwards played in forwards and backs played as backs.

I hate the way we sometimes feel in Offaly that we have to be negative to beat the stronger counties. The seniors are too much like this and Kellaghan has been known to be quite negative tactic wise in the past. Lets be clear here.....These young lads fear nobody and have beaten the best teams in the country in the last few years through the development squads, yet today we started with about 12 players behind the ball when playing with a reasonable breeze and invited cork on. As a result we were behind at half time by 5 or 6 points by virtue of our negative approach..... In the second half we took them on more and but for greediness by a few of the forwards in front of goal and some poor free taking, we would have won by 6 or 7.

I thought the full back and centre back that came in were excellent today, as was Adam Mangan and Jack Walshe. The midfield grew tired as the game went on and were a little out of it towards the end but battled hard all through. Lets not be in any doubt here, This team will be favourites to win this competition now and has the potential and talent to win a Leinster Championship once they turn up with the right attitude.... which under the present management, seems to be happening.... well done to all concerned

Thanks for this writeup.

Reasons to feel hopeful going forward. Hopefully they can continue to push on!!!

As I said yesterday these youngsters are improving day after day and the second halfs performance was excellent.
This final should be a right affair as Longford are by no means a bad side , actually these 2 teams serve up a right good game in a challenge match after Christmas.
I compellment their work rate and never say die spirit and say well done to all concerned.
This is a strong panel with good leadership and hopefully they go ahead and win next Saturday giving them confidence going into the championship .
Again well done

Great result and another step along the road for these lads! Cork would always be very strong at minor.
What I would worry abour with Pascal is the amount of players he puts behind the ball, he has his teams fierce fit, but against the better teams when they invite the opposition on they will get punished. Tis about the right balance.

However the vibes so far are very encouraging and things are looking good for this group. One thing is for sure, they will be ready for the step up to adult football with the work they have done so far.

When & where is the final?

It's down for Saturday at four, and somebody told me that Offaly have home advantage, but I'm not certain of that. No venue announced that I know of anyway.

Is the Colaiste Choilm Leinster Semi Final against Kilcock not scheduled for this Saturday also?

Match is away to Longford on Saturday at 4pm

Colaiste Choilm play Portarlington friday week in semi final.

Lads, I think this team has the potential to be special. On paper it's as strong a panel as Offaly have had in a long time.

Also they still have arguably the best minor in the county, Patrick Dunican to come back in.

Hopefully Kelleghan will get them going.

Still no word on venue , still fixed for 4pm in Longford