Offaly V Laois Leinster MFL - Anyone at this game?

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laoisgaa
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Offaly V Laois Leinster MFL - Anyone at this game?

Post by laoisgaa »

Offaly Minors beat Laois by the minimum margin last night 1-7 to 0-9. Anyone here able to shed some light on the game?

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Lone Shark
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Afraid not.

Post by Lone Shark »

I'd love to say I was, but Dublin eats my soul during the week I'm afraid.

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Match Report

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Comes to you courtesy of LaoisGAA and his website - laois.gaa.ie

Leinster Minor Football League.

Faithful deny Laois

Offaly 1-7
Laois 0-9

On Thursday last at Portarlington under floodlights a reasonable crowd gathered for the Round 4 meeting of Laois and Offaly in the Leinster Minor Football League. A win over Offaly would give Laois the chance to top the group following Dublin’s loss to Kildare in Kill the previous Saturday.

Offaly certainly challenged the Laois lads strongly and they had an outstanding performance from Ken Casey who shot 1-5 of their tally. With Offaly having lost games against Meath and Kildare and with Laois on a winning roll following facile victories over Kildare and Westmeath it was expected that the home side would be totally dominant over the visitors.

But that isn’t the way things pan out at minor level and the form book can be thrown out the window for this was in a game in which both sides held their periods of dominance.

Laois took the initiative early on and opened the scoring after just 50 seconds with a pointed free from Ciaran Delaney. Offaly then shot in front with a dramatic goal after Shane Grennan had sent a long ball in and found corner forward Ken Casey lurking and he rifled the ball to the net in one of the few real lapses in the Laois defence.

Laois came back into their own and shot the next three points with Ciaran Delaney, Scott Conroy and Simon Shorthall all getting in on the scoring and after ten minutes Laois regained the lead by 0-4 to 1-0. It was then the turn of Offaly to hit a purple patch with Ken Casey pointing for the visitors after a foul on James Gorman. Offaly continued apace and shot points from Niall Darby, Ken Casey again and a point from Colaiste Iosagain, Portarlington student John Knight to give them a 1-4 to 0-4 lead with ten minutes remaining in the opening half.

Ken Casey then shot over the only 45’ of the half for the visitors before Laois staged a comeback in the closing stages of the half with points from Scott Conroy and Brian Meredith leaving just two points between the sides at the break by 1-5 to 0-6.

Offaly were making far better use of their possession in the opening half creating more scoring chances and converting more of their attempts. Laois held a lot of possession and were perhaps unlucky not to see more chances turned into scores.

The second half was a low scoring affair in which defences were on top with Laois’s Darren Maher certainly performing well between the posts and denying Offaly of scores. He saved Laois’s blushes on at least two occasions where Offaly were through for certain goals.

With seven minutes gone into the half Ciaran Delaney converted his third free of the game and the minimum just separated the sides. Offaly were keen on extending their lead but with defences on top both sides were finding it hard to get scores and it took ten minutes for the next score to come with Ken Casey sending the ball over the bar from a 45 metre free.

Ken Casey was again on target five minutes later when he sent a long range free between the posts for his fifth point of the game. This came with eight minutes remaining but there was still time for Laois to stage a comeback. This they did and with points from Diarmuid O’Flaherty and Scott Conroy in the closing ten minutes they had narrowed the gap to the minimum margin once again.

Laois were totally dominating possession at this stage and they had a chance to level the game after they won a 45’ which Stephen O’Leary opted to play short to Cathal Óg Greene but the midfielder sent the ball wide and Laois were denied the equaliser. Substitute Darragh Meredith also fisted wide in the closing stages and was in hard luck for a goal which would have been the tonic Laois needed.

Both defences were hard to penetrate and forwards perhaps over elaborated but for Laois no fault could be found with Darren Maher between the posts having saved two certain goals. Also in defence Patrick Fleming, Adrian Whelan, Brian Meredith and Simon Shorthall played well. The midfield partnership of Shane O’Neill and Cathal Óg Greene tried their best with Greene doing a lot of work. Upfront Diarmuid O’Flaherty, Scott Conroy and Ciaran Delaney were the pick of the attack.

Laois under the stewardship of Andy Shorthall face Tipperary tonight (Wednesday) in a challenge game before their final game of the league next weekend away to Meath.

Laois: Darren Maher (Stradbally); Patrick Fleming (St. Joseph’s), Mark Delaney (Park/Ratheniska), Adrian Whelan (Portarlington); Bernard Rochford (Mountmellick), Brian Meredith (O’Dempsey’s) (0-1), Simon Shorthall (Annanough) (0-1); Shane O’Neill (Graiguecullen), Cathal Óg Greene (Park/Ratheniska); Stephen O’Leary (O’Dempsey’s), Brian Brennan (St. Joseph’s), Diarmuid O’Flaherty (Mountmellick) (0-1), Joe Delaney (Portlaoise), Scott Conroy (Ballyroan) (0-3), Ciaran Delaney (Park/Ratheniska) (0-3, all frees). Subs: Darragh Meredith (O’Dempsey’s) for Brian Brennan, Sean O’Shea (Arles/Kilcruise) for Joe Delaney, Richard Ryan (Ballylinan) for Diarmuid O’Flaherty.

Offaly: Dean Bracken; Kyle Kavanagh, Keith Higgins, Steven Egan; Shane Grennan, Richard Dalton (Capt), John Knight (0-1), David Kavanagh, David Larkin; James Gorman, Niall Darby (0-1), Ger Treacy; Ken Casey (1-5, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45’), Padraig Duffy, Rory Connor. Subs: Paul Teehan for Shane Grennan, Alan Lynam for Ger Treacy.

Referee: Joe Murray
[/b]

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Lone Shark
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The Clubs, as best as I can do.

Post by Lone Shark »

Dean Bracken (Erin Rovers)
Kyle Kavanagh (??)
Keith Higgins (Tubber)
Stephen Egan (Tullamore)
Shane Grennan (Ballycumber??)
Richard Dalton (Capt) (Edenderry)
John Knight (Gracefield)
David Kavanagh (??)
David Larkin (Doon)
James Gorman (Gracefield)
Niall Darby (Rhode)
Ger Treacy (St. Vincent's)
Ken Casey (Rhode)
Padraig Duffy (Walsh Island)
Rory Connor (Walsh Island)
Subs:
Paul Teehan (Clara)
Alan Lynam (Erin Rovers)


A few gaps, but it's as good as I can do.

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