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Seeing as this is Offalys first championship game of the season it deserves a thread. Offaly have named an unchanged team from 3 weeks ago so hopefully we get the same result, hope there will be a big support there to support them on after going so well this year.

Would i be right in saying that it is 2007 since Offaly last won a game in the leinster championship.

Buttons wrote:Seeing as this is Offalys first championship game of the season it deserves a thread. Offaly have named an unchanged team from 3 weeks ago so hopefully we get the same result, hope there will be a big support there to support them on after going so well this year.

Would i be right in saying that it is 2007 since Offaly last won a game in the leinster championship.

You are correct, we beat Carlow in Portlaoise, in 2007. That's 8 years since we won a first round game, and we haven't played Longford yet. I hope Offaly don't wait 9 years for a championship victory.

Yes, no Leinster championship win since 2007. No Leinster win in Tellamore since 2002 when Paschal Kellaghan's last minute winner beat Leix.

Despite Offaly being better over the two previous encounters, this one could be a real landmine of a game. Longford being the underdogs will go for a whirlwind start to try and build a cushion. If they get ahead, they can get more men behind the ball and a repeat of the free flowing Offaly football from 3 weeks ago becomes more difficult. Offaly have to be alert from the start.
Management too, a back getting roasted for the first 15 minutes could take 40 minutes to even up again on the scoreboard.

Longford beat Derry away last year, Derry having contesting the D1 League final. They beat Mayo in 2010. There might be unrest in their camp this year, but they'll be up for this game. It's Offaly's to lose and I'm quietly confident that we won't.

Longford are quiet good and masterminding serious ambushes .

In 2006 they should have beaten the Dubs down in Pearse park , The same year they went down to Killarney and gave Kerry the scare of there lives only for the brilliance of Eoin Brosnan scoring a hatrick of goals that game could of had a very different outcome, and then came the sweet victories over Derry last year and Mayo in 2010.

It suits Longford to come to Tullamore as underdogs and they will be well up for the battle, they will most certainly not be as poor as they were in Dublin they kicked 4 easy frees wide in the first 20 minutes and squandered a lot of possession inside the Offaly 45 from open play , you can put your bottom dollar they wont be as wasteful tomorrow night .

Offaly are playing with an air of confidence at the minute and we seeing what they are capable of when the shackles came off in Croke park , if we can play like that on Sunday we should get over the line .Offaly by 3 or 4 for me.

Cant make it today. Is it on TV or online anywhere?

Anfearban wrote:Cant make it today. Is it on TV or online anywhere?

If you can't find any video your next best bet is Midlands Radio 3. Thinking they will stay with this one the whole way. A good alternative.

Uibh Fhaili Abu!!!!!'

WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7 points up with 15 minutes to go and we lose by 3.

There's a line running through my head from that film cool running's where the coach is giving the team a talk after a bad qualifying run where he says:

"You had it and you chocked, You were ready and you chocked"

I think once again it wasn't a case of Longford being the better team, it was more a case of Offaly not yet having the killer instinct to finish games off

I don't want to be too hard on the lads because despite tonights result they still had an excellent season and we should remember that this is a young team still developing as a unit but they will have to learn some painful lessons along the way before they are ready to push on and tonight just seems to be one of those

Unlucky lads

Dreadful first 15 minutes and last 15 minutes in the middle we played well, we didn't take advantage of the wind enough in the first half.We nearly snatched a draw at the end but it wouldn't have been a deserved draw.

John Maloney was Offaly best player tonight, he drove out of defence well and really gave us some impetus from those runs.The 2 Darby's played well also.

Niall McNamee was quiet (although he scored one brilliant point)and we should have played him at full forward and played lots of direct ball into him in the first half when we had the wind.

Our obsession with running the ball cost us.For most of the game there was acres of space unoccupied and rarely did any of the players think of pulling off into the space and being available for a simple foot pass to get the team moving forward quickly.

Sorry, Meant Choked, God spell check has me ruined

DAF wrote:Dreadful first 15 minutes and last 15 minutes in the middle we played well, we didn't take advantage of the wind enough in the first half.We nearly snatched a draw at the end but it wouldn't have been a deserved draw.

John Maloney was Offaly best player tonight, he drove out of defence well and really gave us some impetus from those runs.The 2 Darby's played well also.

Niall McNamee was quiet (although he scored one brilliant point)and we should have played him at full forward and played lots of direct ball into him in the first half when we had the wind.

Our obsession with running the ball cost us.For most of the game there was acres of space unoccupied and rarely did any of the players think of pulling off into the space and being available for a simple foot pass to get the team moving forward quickly.

Well summed up. Never looked like scoring a goal tonight. Maybe Niall Mac should have been replaced, he wasn't on song. We are on the qualifier route again, hope we improve on recent qualifier displays or we'll have a short season.

Disappointing, but lets not have a queue of lads wanting to put the boot in.

Bord na Mona man wrote:Disappointing, but lets not have a queue of lads wanting to put the boot in.

Hard not to such was the level of disappointment at what happened here.
You want to stay positive but hesus how do live with an 11 to 1 floor wiping. And the 1 was a soft free that the ref brought in to the easiest of spots. The difference was the influence Kavanagh had on the game compared to Niall Mc.
The one positive is that I wonf be duty bound to go witness a slaughtering in croke park.
I think Pat Flanagans management skills will be tested to limit in trying to bring this group back up for qualifiers or even progress in div 3 next yr.
Bitterly disappointed. And I know any disappointment I feel is nothing compared to how the players feel.

First---- Congratulations to Club Faithful for a brilliant pre-match event....

Dissapointed with the result..... First 15 mins killed us, 10 mins or more to get our first point, with the wind.

Then a great spell up to half time. Agood start to the second alf and held opponents scoreless for 11 mins but then seemed to hit a brick wall. Spirited late rally but it was too late.

Congrats to Longford , the better team today.

A lasy point: How can Anton be fouled more than 20 times, including a clothes-line, and the ref does nothing. I am very fearful that he will be taken out of football permanently if this continues..

We still have the Quals so we keep the faith.....

We didn't score enough with the wind in the first half and we were very slow for the first 15 mins. Our forwards didn't click like the last day , we didn't have one shot on goal compared to scoring 4 last time out. Anton was fouled numerous times and was a target from the start, the ref could have black carded a number of Longford players but instead gave out yellows . Shocking disappointing to be 7up with 15 mins left only to be bet by 3. Moloney played well along with Joseph o Connor , Feck it just so disappointed .

So disappointing for sure!

I'm living overseas so I wasn't at the game. From all accounts the Club Faithful event was a great start to a championship occasion. I was listening to Midlands 103 dedicated Offaly- Longford stream for the game so thanks to them as well - it's a great service- I just clicked on the link they posted on Twitter!

Anyway Offaly seemed to have built a good platform in the 2nd half and then Longford came on a run. When teams get the hang of a strong wind they often get a lot of scores in succession but it was disappointing that Offaly couldn't break their momentum with the odd score. The slow start in the first half (with the wind) did come back to bite Offaly in the end.

Anyway I hope that Pat Flanagan can rally the troops for a run in the qualifiers. Experience for the players and a summer tour for the fans!!

Even if they don't do much in the summer - IMHO they owe us nothing after working hard all winter, getting out of Division 4 and giving us a winning day out in Croke Park.