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Lucky to end with a draw. Dire second half, not helped by some scandalous refereeing. But we should have been out of sight, 9 points up after 5 mins of second half. Poor movement and shape up front was one element, but the lack of work rate in the tackle and maintenance of possesion was very disappointing. Wasted too much ball. Anton had an horrendous second half. This point could be the one to come back to haunt us.
But the refereeing display was horrible, 45 should have been awarded after G Guilfoyle free deflectd by defender, Panda black card, no black card to Leitrim for 2 pull downs in last 5 mins, free against Eoin Carroll plus booking for contesting a ball in the air????, penalty seemed soft from where I was, free against Guilfoyle when he caught a ball near the end. Shocking stuff. In fairness a Sligo ref doing a Leitrim game, they mustn't have a big rivalry, he must have gotten the bus down with them!!

Very lucky to get a draw. We were outplayed in the second half. We need to tighten up a lot in defence. Our lack of tackling throughout the field and tracking of runners is a worry. A few supporters on the way out summed up the display as a "wake up call". That is exactly what it is. I'm sure the team is capable of playing better than this but there is a lot to work on.

Fair dues to Willie Mulhall and Niall Darby for nailing the two frees near the end. Padraig Sullivan had a very good game before tiring early in the second half, or maybe he picked up an injury.

If Offaly win their two remaining home games against Carlow and Antrim they will be promoted, so fate is still in our own hands.

I agree, there were some bizarre referring decisions today. Penalising Eoin Carroll for contesting a high ball was particularly baffling. Granted, he 'came in from the side' but there is no law against that. He went for the ball fairly and just because the Leitrim man ended up on his back doesn't mean a foul took place. Also, while I agree in principle with the black card rule, it seems that any entanglement where an opponent ends up falling to the ground is being treated as a black card offence. I would have thought the original intention of the rule in this regard was to penalise the deliberate and cynical dragging down of an opponent when they were bearing down on goal. Bernard Allen's alleged offence took place near the corner flag at the Leitrim goal end! And it didn't look like there was any cynicism involved.

Disappointing that Offaly didn't push on from a commanding position and win it.
That said, they got 9 ahead without ever being significantly better.
Leitrim started to eat into the lead without a major reaction from Offaly. The ref might have thrown them a few bones, but that frequently happens in such circumstances and you need to be alert to it.
What was most disappointing was the lack of work when Leitrim had the ball and players opting not to track back. There was one passage that summed it up for me. Leitrim tapped a short kickout to one of their backs standing in their D. He turned his marker and was heading down the field in a couple of seconds with no one chasing him. Two passes later they had knocked over the point by going straight down the middle and not feeling the glove of an Offaly player.

Pat Flanagan will be especially disappointed as this sort of low intensity play has been the biggest contributor to Offaly being in Division 4 in the first place. I'd expect a backlash the next day and maybe this was the alarm call that Offaly needed.

Complacency set in I think. Work rate of the forwards dropped off significantly as the game went on. The lads need to stay focused for 70 minutes no matter how bad the opposition is. Todays draw in the overall picture will make little or no difference but I expect it'll be a wake up call. A win against Carlow next Sunday will put them out of the picture so there's plenty of incentive.

Was worried about a letdown here.

Not sure if that had anything to do with it. I'm sure everyone is trying.

Too bad we were not able to hold onto the win with a good lead.

As said above, hopefully it is the wake up call that is needed.

As an aside, Roy Malone on Radio 3 commented, even when we built the lead that the play looked sloppy, thought Offaly looked tired, guys were not working together, things do not seem coordinated (or things to that effect). He repeated his concerns at halftime and throughout the second half.

I was scratching my head when thinking about the halftime score, but he clearly was unsettled by what he was seeing.

Hopefully we can put this behind us and get the promotion push back on track.

Based on the previous outing this seems like a good possibility.

theres going to be hight and lows getting offaly back up the divisions in the football league, a low on sunday but fair play to them they didn't throw in the towell and got the draw, look offaly at the moment are division 4 team and have no right to think they can just turn up to beat any team in it, it took years of defeats to get us down to division 4 and it will take a few years to get us back up again theres no quick fix to get us back, but i do belive the right man is over them to get the job done it may take 3 to 4 years to do it.

townman wrote:theres going to be hight and lows getting offaly back up the divisions in the football league, a low on sunday but fair play to them they didn't throw in the towell and got the draw, look offaly at the moment are division 4 team and have no right to think they can just turn up to beat any team in it, it took years of defeats to get us down to division 4 and it will take a few years to get us back up again theres no quick fix to get us back, but i do belive the right man is over them to get the job done it may take 3 to 4 years to do it.

Agreed

townman wrote:theres going to be hight and lows getting offaly back up the divisions in the football league, a low on sunday but fair play to them they didn't throw in the towell and got the draw, look offaly at the moment are division 4 team and have no right to think they can just turn up to beat any team in it, it took years of defeats to get us down to division 4 and it will take a few years to get us back up again theres no quick fix to get us back, but i do belive the right man is over them to get the job done it may take 3 to 4 years to do it.

Well said , 100% agree Pat and the lads are motoring along nicely and Pat has to be given time in the job and no doubt we will make progress .