Offaly V Roscommon NFL 07/03/2010

[Johnno81]

Well guys,

Whats your opinions on the game Sunday. For me, it is a must win game for us if we want to keep our promotion hopes alive. But the Rossies are staring relegation if they dont win so its going to be a tough encounter!!!

[black and red exile]

Roscommon are always a bogey team for Offaly and yes with the Rossies desperate for points there is no doubt this one will probably go to the wire in what will be a real battle. With the very difficult trip to Sligo on Sunday week it's vitally important we pick up both points on Sunday to have any chance whatsoever of promotion. The Rossies will outnumber us support wise[ surprise surprise ] and they will see this as an opportunity for their first win especially after throwing it away big time against Fermanagh. Like the hurlers last week, looking forward to seeing the team selected.

[Superted]

A must win for us tomorrow, anyone see a team selection at all?

[bracknaghboy]

Well done to the lads today. We are quick to criticise when they lose but not many on here today after we've won! Sounds like it was a very strange game indeed. Was away today and couldn't get to it so awaiting eye witness reports of the goings on. If nothing our forwards seem to be scoring a bit. 3 decent scores in the opening 3 league matches. A 1 point win against a poor poor Rossies outfit is nothing to get carried away with thats where we're at, so a wins a win.

[Offaly2010]

I was at the game today and Offaly looked very lively up front throughout the game,especially in the first half.

Offaly dominated early on and were 0-3 - 0-00 up after 5 mins. After 10 mins,Offaly led 1-4 - 0-1,the goal coming from a Niall McNamee penalty after Ciaran McManus had been fouled. Roscommon came back and got a goal of their own from John Rogers. Offaly dominated the rest of the half and led 2-11 - 1-8 at half time,the second goal coming after a high ball was won inside by Niall McNamee who off-loaded to John Reynolds who finished to the back of the net.

The second half was very different to the first with Offaly only scoring 0-3,even still Offaly led 2-14 - 1-11 with four minutes left,but a mistake in the Offaly defense gave Cathal Cregg the chane to finish past Alan Mulhall. Two Roscommon points quickly followed giving Offaly a nail-biting finish,but Offaly held on to win by the slitest of margins.

Offaly had a lot of good individual performances including Ciaran Kiely and Shane Sullivan in defense,John Couglan in midfield who won an awful lot of ball and Niall McNamee and John Reynolds up front.

Offaly:Alan Mulhall,Ciaran Kiely,Shane Sullivan,Brian Darby,Conor Caroll,Richie Dalton,Stephen Lonergan,John Coughlan,Ciaran McManus,Alan Lynam,Scott Brady,Sean Ryan(0-1)David Egan(0-3)John Reynolds(1-2)Niall McNamee(1-8)
Subs:Peter Smart for David Egan,Pauric Sullivan for Sean Ryan,Ross Brady for Scott Brady.

[turk]

Good to get the win anyways and some good scores taken up front. Some great play by Niall Mc and Reynolds to get some really class scores from play.

Some negatives to take away too. Roscommon (who were very poor) didn't have to work tremenduously hard or use any craft or guile to get scores. If they managed to get the ball into a player inside our 45 in the first half they would almost always come away with a score. Added to this we had some really poor giveaway play at the back too to keep them in the game with a few points presented to 'em. With the wind in the first half we were just a point ahead going into injury time and then we got 1-2, which was great.

Following adding on a couple of more scores to go 8 ahead there followed about 15 minutes of the match where nothing happened. Roscommon really hit rock bottom in this period. We had just Reynolds and Niall Mc up there at this stage and if we managed to get the ball we didn't get it up to them properly or we'd lose possession and Roscommon would fluff about and we would end up with it again. There was a fairly poor mix up then to let them in for a second goal which roused them to seek a big comeback, which luckily we held out.

It was real division 3 stuff today. It's good to get some positives and also some areas for improvement at this time of the year. On one hand today there were passages of play which were really poor and there were a few lads that didn't look altogether comfortable. On the other hand I'd get the feeling that this isn't an extremely tough division and if there is continuous improvement we could be in the shake up. Sligo away is tough however it is an achievable challenge given we have hard work to do after this game.

[Bord na Mona man]

A game of two halves.
2-11 in the first half is some total. As I said yesterday, Joe Dooley would love a hurling team that could do that in 70 minutes. John Coughlan had a good debut in the middle. Strong under the high ball and a decent boot. Niall McNamee and John Reynolds stole the show up front. Though the Roscommon full back line was all over the place.

In the second half, Offaly fell a bit too deep. McNamee and Reynolds were left too isolated up front, so that every time Offaly broke out of defence, there was little outlet.
Too many players were back 'sweeping'. So Offaly generally turned it over, or lost it through long punts that gave the Rossie defenders a good chance of intercepting.

Roscommon were generally woeful. Every bit as bad as last year when Mayo humiliated them. Offaly gifted them most of their scores through defensive turnovers. Very few Roscommon scores were actually created by an unbroken move of Roscommon possession.
Again the bad Offaly habit of giving increasingly pressured short and square defensive handpasses and turning back across their own goal caused the most trouble.

Overall though a good day for Offaly. The forwards are going very well. The full back line will need time to settle a bit. Perhaps a few set-piece routines need to devised for working the ball out of defence.

[leinsterman]

A game of two halves.
2-11 in the first half is some total. As I said yesterday, Joe Dooley would love a hurling team that could do that in 70 minutes. John Coughlan had a good debut in the middle. Strong under the high ball and a decent boot. Niall McNamee and John Reynolds stole the show up front. Though the Roscommon full back line was all over the place.

In the second half, Offaly fell a bit too deep. McNamee and Reynolds were left too isolated up front, so that every time Offaly broke out of defence, there was little outlet.
Too many players were back 'sweeping'. So Offaly generally turned it over, or lost it through long punts that gave the Rossie defenders a good chance of intercepting.

Roscommon were generally woeful. Every bit as bad as last year when Mayo humiliated them. Offaly gifted them most of their scores through defensive turnovers. Very few Roscommon scores were actually created by an unbroken move of Roscommon possession.
Again the bad Offaly habit of giving increasingly pressured short and square defensive handpasses and turning back across their own goal caused the most trouble.

Overall though a good day for Offaly. The forwards are going very well. The full back line will need time to settle a bit. Perhaps a few set-piece routines need to devised for working the ball out of defence.

Joe dooley would love that for 70 minutes, but there is a big gap from divison1
and div3 look's like the footballers fade out near the end like the hurlers are offaly
hurling and footballs teams not being trained right or just don't put in in at training
during the week.

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly also had a wide given as a point btw.

[black and red exile]

Actually BNMM, there were 2 points given to us that were wides but it's about time we got the rub of the green for a change

[Johnno81]

Watching that match yesterday reminded me of Louth last year in the league, miles ahead with ten minutes to go and then panic stations when the oppisition get on top.. Its a big worry and if it happens again, will we be lucky???

Some of the football yesterday was absolutely brilliant but mixed with the moments of madness!!!! But a win is a win....