OFFALY MINOR FOOTBALLERS 2015

[azoffaly]

Best of luck to the lads tonight against Kildare.

[Toxicity234]

Good Man AZ beat me to it.
Great work from Club Faithful with the Text messages. I had forgotten about this match.

Anyway best of luck to the lads tonight.

[NewEra]

Best of luck men! Feed off the posiitive energy around football in the county at the minute and tear into Kildare.

I was in Cappincur 2 years ago when this team defeated Kildare in U16. Hoping for a similar result tonight. Good luck.

[Phoenix]

Best of luck to the Minors tonight against Kildare!

[Kevin]

Does anyone know how to track the game if they can't be there?

Midlands 103 has other programs on today.

[llkj]

Twitter is the way forward. follow someone like Mary Dunne: https://twitter.com/maryballyfore

Current score is 13-12 to Kildare after 57 mins. Offaly just missed a great goal chance... according to Mary on Twitter

[llkj]

13 - 13 now. Draw with 2 mins to play.

[llkj]

Kildare won 13-14. Sounds like Offaly missed 3 goal chances in 2nd half.

[townman]

heart breaking defeat but you have to take your chances

[Kevin]

Thanks for the info.

Too bad about the result.

Thanks to the Minors for their efforts.

[hawksforever]

Yes this was a fine effort overall. I counted 5 goal chances for Offaly with none to Kildare and all we got from those chances was 2 points.
Hit the upright 2 minutes from time for the equiliser and had kicked a few bad wides from scoreable positions , but as said in a previous post you must take the chances you get.
At the end of the game there was some unsavory incidents involving players , subs , mentors and supporters which lasted a number of minutes and cannot comment on how it began but it looked nasty.

[Killeighman]

That was the hail mary of all rows. It got very nasty. A lot of punches thrown and it was a free for all. Great effort from the boys and i think they deserved more from the game. Offaly were the better team in my opinion.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Harsh on the minors, and Kildare will be fierce relieved to come away with the win in the circumstances.
Many good displays, but couple of tactically failures, Jimmy Hyland was causing us nightmares in the first half, but Pj Daly did a great job on him on the second half, plus I suppose Kildare found it harder to get the ball into him in the second half against the wind. Also, their centre forward caused a lot of harm and a soft booking for Gavin O'Brien left him under pressure, but he seemed to be staying in position at 6 and not picking up 11, so maybe someone else was detailed to pick him up.

Hyland kicked some great frees, but strangely, seemed to be used in a withdrawn role during the second half. Cathal Mangan worked hard but he showed signs of rustiness after such remarkably quick return from cruciate surgery.
Tierney was very good up front. Kyle Higgins mixed the good with the bad. Ronan Hynes won plenty of ball in the second half also.

Certainly (as Gerry Russell would say), we were the better team. Lads will rue the missed chances near the end.

The scenes at the end were very bad, with one of the Kildare subs seeming to hit Shane Tierney. After that it turned into a brawl with a lot of supporters, subs drawn into it, (I would say many were going in to meet players to commiserate/congratulate), but some got involved in a bad way.
I think an Offaly "fan" got a few thumps from some of his county men for his actions during the brawl!
It was a shame at the end of what was a good game of football, and anyone who can be identified as being a culprit should be dealt with severly.
Hopefully none of the players were injured.

[jimbob17]

The team deserved more than they got last night and really were the better team. I counted 5 Offaly goal chances to none for Kildare and they will certainly be relieved as they got out of jail by winning that game. Offaly had plenty of chances in second half and only the width of the post stopped it going to extra time. I was sure we had a goal at the end to finish the game but it wasnt to be. Pride was restored however and these lads will now know that they can compete with and beat the likes of Kildare and Dublin!

The scenes at the end were disgraceful with people from both sides rushing in from the stands elevating the row. From what I saw, an Offaly forward was struck and goaded by 2 Kildare subs running in at the final whistle and it all seemed to take off from there. There were a few idiot "fans" from both Offaly and Kildare that rushed in too which wasnt a help. Most disappointing however was that one of the Kildare management or at least a chap that was connected to them got involved in a very serious altercation which could have done serious damage. From what I could gather, this chap was escorted away from the scene by Gardai at the finish. Lets hope that these scenes dont marr what was a very good game and a fine performance by a young Offaly team!

[Killeighman]

A report in the Hoganstand suggests that an Offaly player had his ear bitten.