2016 National League Div 3

[Bord na Mona man]

This was never a game pencilled in as one that Offaly should or might win. Kildare have a new manager wanting to make a good impression and they also see themselves as a team on the next tier outside of the big 6.
Anything less than 7 wins out of 7 for them in this Division will be viewed as only a partially successful campaign by them.

The nature of the national league is that teams who lose in one round up their efforts in the next round - hence wins for Longford and Sligo. Offaly are still in a good place having won the game they needed to win and gotten the game against the presumed Division winners out of the way. Also, home advantage is proving the swing factor in a lot of cases. Offaly have two home games against Sligo and Clare in rounds 3 and 5. If we can win those, then it would great to into the last 2 rounds with survival virtually assured and then have a decent crack at Limerick and Westmeath.

[The Biff]

There was a decent bit of encouraging viewing for us in Newbridge yesterday. God love those unfortunate Lily-White supporters for putting up with a team that continues to kick wides with reckless abandon. They have that down to a fine art.

Offaly struggled in Midfield, where Kildare seemed happy to take the punch option mostly and had men ready for the Breaking ball. Graham Guilfoyle tried manfully but needed more support. Was surprised that Niall Smith appeared so late. Great work from Joey O'Connor in particular. The wind was very deceptive. It must have been a lot stronger than the supporters realised. A couple of monster points scored in the second half where the lads managed to master it. Offaly subs added quite a bit so I like to think that Flanagan used this game to give some of our backup lads a fair crack against strong opposition.

Onwards with optimism.

[hopper82]

So were back on the horse this weekend as we welcome Sligo to Tullamore.

Both teams coming in with a fifty percent record will view this as a must win game if either of them have any intentions of promotion, a win would also go along way in ensuring safety in a group that you could very easily find yourself in the bottom two of if you loose a couple of tight games on the trot.

Sligo will be quitley confident after beating Westmeath a fortnight ago, so its imperitave we put doubts in there minds from the get go and get off to a decent start .
We are slight favourites to win this one and I feel this is just about justified , Pat Flanagan will no Sligo inside out from the time he spent there which is a big advantage, this coupled with the fact its a bit of a spin down the N4 for the Sligo followers should leave for a big Offaly crowd which will hopfully help push the lads over the line .

looking foward to it.
Offaly by 4

[Lone Shark]

Huge game this Sunday - again a win leaves us travelling to Thurles in a good frame of mind and with a bit of security, while defeat leaves us with just one more home game and at least three points still to find to avoid the drop. It would also almost certainly rule out the possibility of a promotion bid.

I know Sligo beat Westmeath but by all accounts, that was more about Westmeath's attitude than anything else. Our beloved neighbours apparently played inot the wind in the first half, were utterly putrid and went in trailing by just one - thus embedding the idea in their heads that they had to do very little to beat Sligo. Then, as happens, an intercounty team starts to grow in belief and once Sligo scored their goal to give themselves a bit of a cushion, they easily held on.

Offaly need to do better here. They are playing one of very few teams that is equally as poorly equipped in the middle as Offaly. Pat Hughes will presumably do the job for them, but he won't dominate games in the way that a playing like Gary Brennan, Daniel Flynn or Paul Sharry might do in this division. Sligo will defend well but Offaly need to be patient, not to get sucked forward and keep their discipline and deny Sligo the frees that they depend on. Few people will know them better than Pat Flanagan, so there should be every chance of a strong performance, which will hopefully lead to the right result.

[sam88885a]

important win for offaly ,well done to all involved

[kingscounty]

Great win especially when we went down to 14 men after 60 mins

[Exiled in Connacht]

This could turn out to be a very tight battle for second spot and promotion, assuming Kildare as expected win the division.

The various draws are keeping us in the hunt. If we beat Clare at home and target Limerick away and pick up a point somewhere else (maybe in Thurles in the next match) we might be in with a shout.

Keep it going lads !

[Bord na Mona man]

Great to win this one. When Sligo edged ahead in the 2nd half an Offaly team with less self belief would probably have lost the game.
In relegation terms, Sligo are another team (along with Longford) who now have to pull in 3 extra league points to get ahead of Offaly on the standings.
The only slight hitch is that our last 2 games could be against relegation battling minnows - Wastemeath and Limerick.

-------------P-----W-----D-----L----Dif----Pts
Kildare-----3-----3-----0-----0-----15-----6
Clare-------3-----2-----0-----1------9-----4
Tipperary--3-----1-----2-----0------3-----4
Offaly------3-----2-----0-----1------0-----4
Longford---3-----1-----0-----2------7-----2
Sligo--------3-----1-----0-----2------7-----2
W'meath---3-----0-----1-----2------5-----1
Limerick---3-----0-----1-----2------8-----1

[Lone Shark]

A very encouraging win, both in terms of the value of the two points secured and the manner in which it was achieved. Not unlike the Longford game,. it would have been easy to start to believe that luck was against them at various stages, definitely when Niall was shown the red card. Instead they dug in, picked off a couple of crucial scores and now travel to Tipperary with a little bit of momentum behind them. Given how Tipperary are likely to be much improved for every game that the Clonmel players get with the county team this is likely to be a big ask, however taking four points from the two home games has taken a lot of the pressure off and it'll allow the players to attack this game and go after a win, rather than playing with fear.

I'd still be a bit slow to say that we're safe from relegation yet, we'll almost certainly need to pick up another win somewhere, but it's nice that promotion is still not completely out of the question - even if we'd have a lot of improvement to find to compete at that level. I attended Galway vs Tyrone at Salthill a few weeks back and while the scoring was low enough, the standard was very decent - a long way ahead of where we are right now. Results so far would suggest that we're at the right level in division three, with a bit of upward momentum. You'd have to be happy with that.

As for the growing possibility that we might be safe by the time we go to Mullingar and that we could send them down with a win that would resonate all the way along the Dunnes Stores frozen food aisle, well, a man can dream....

[Exiled in Connacht]

I think this football thread is a grown up mature adult compared to the hurling equivalent which is full of teenage nonsense about where is best to play our hurling matches !!

[jimbob17]

I think this football thread is a grown up mature adult compared to the hurling equivalent which is full of teenage nonsense about where is best to play our hurling matches !!

Never a truer word said. So childish beyond belief and doesnt say much for some involved - primarily some of the babyish rhetoric from southside. While i few more supporters might attend in Birr due to location, this perception of Birr being a natural home for Offaly more so than Tullamore is just pathetic. Offaly is Offaly and Tullamore is the county town!

Back to the football. Thought Offaly were well worth the win yesterday and I think Flanagan is doing a great job considering the state in which he found it. Whether we get promotion or not and irrespective of how championship, he should get a 2 year extension. There is only good vibes coming from the squad and generally they seem to be a united bunch who are willing to work for each other and positive in their football in comparison with previous managers who were overly negative. They are winning these games against lesser division 3 teams which is huge considering last year we were in division 4.

The next 2 games will tell a lot. Tipperary and Clare are also on 4 points and appear to be 2 teams who will be challenging for that 2nd spot behind Kildare as it stands, so 2 wins from the next 2 games (which won't be easy) will put us in a great position going into the last 2 games. In fact beating Tipp, Clare and Limerick might be enough to get us into guaranteed 2nd and promotion before we play Westmeath in final game as we would oust them on head to head if level on points with one of them.

Westmeath are definitely gone for me regarding promotion as the most they can gather is 9 points - thats if they win 4 in a row which is highly unlikely. I dont see them as relegation candidates though and id expect them to beat Limerick and pick up at least 2 from Clare and Longford games.

Tipp and Clare have yet to play Kildare which is good for Offaly as they will most likely lose here - though a full strength Tipp with momentum could take Kildare on their day

[Hyper]

Jimbob, per the fixtures Limerick away is the last game 3rd April, with the Westmeath game on the week before on the 27th March.
Yeah the boys dug in really well on Sunday. Alan M, Smithy, Maloney and Sullivan were excellent I thought and Niall Mc put in a very good first half, his movement was good.. Unfortunately Smithy won't be available for the next 2 games....

[bracknaghboy]

Smithy won't be available for the next 2 games....

Whys that Hyper?
He was immense on Sunday. In fact when he plays well Offaly rarely loose. He dominated against Kildare for 25 minutes in Tullamore last summer before the injury. I'm convinced if he had played the full 70 we'd have beaten them that Saturday. The opening 10 minutes against Sligo was unreal. The movement from the forwards was what you'd expect from a team on championship day on a summers surface. Unfortunately the few wides that followed seemed to knock the confidence.
Westmeath should be a game Offaly target for the win. Cribbin is struggling in there....the Leinster final run is a distant memory as Division 4 looms. Am I correct in saying Emmet McDonnell is involved this year with them also.......hardly two chaps that would instill confidence.
Flanagan has Offaly on a path of solid progression. Promotion this year would be a lot to ask but I'd expect it next year.

[Hyper]

The poor chap is getting wed on Friday!!!! Only joking the wife to be is sound out.... I think Emmet is the under 21 manager

[hopper82]

Great win on Sunday ,ecspecially after Mcnamee got harshly sent off (neither tackles were too wreckless).If we found ourselfes on level terms in a tight game a couple of years ago or even last year and our main man was to get the line, im not sure if we would have kicked on for the win.
We found out on Sunday we have leaders Alan Mulhall pulled off a match winning save and his presence in around the square is very reassuring .
Johnny Maloney is a real powerhouse and himself and Michael Brazil have galvinised the spine of the team ,Eoin Rigney seems solid also with the helping hand of Darby and Pender .
Niall Smith had a massive game and won alot of Mulhalls kickouts and general loose ball around the middle third his fielding of the ball is a joy to watch, in saying that Sligo struggle in this area of the field with 95 percent of kickouts going short, Offaly not for the first time under Pat allowed the oppisition to do this . They didnt really press the kick out untill Sligo were working it past the 45 metre line.

Anton once again impressed when introduced as an impact sub making a general nucence of himself and winning frees , he kicked a faboulus point aswell with the game in the melting pot .

I was impressed on Sunday and we were hands down the better team. I feel we maybe a small bit premature for promotion but its great to be talking about it as a possibility .
As it stands all we have done so far was beat longford and Sligo, hardly reson to celebrate , but all the signs are there that we are improving and we cant ask for more than that.
Looking further ahead into the Summer neither Longford or Westmeath are setting the place a light and if we keep the momentum going we could get a couple of games under our belt in the Leinster championship for the first time in years.