Offaly v Louth NFL

[True Red]

Offaly lifted with late Guinan point

DIVISION THREE: Offaly 2-8 Louth 1-10: THE FACT Offaly registered their first victory under new manager Tom Cribbin is only the bones of the story from Tullamore.

The real flesh was added in the dying minutes of a tense encounter yesterday during which drama was piled upon drama.

For most the game Offaly held the upper hand. Having availed of wind advantage to build an interval lead of 1-4 to 0-1, they added a further 1-1 without reply within nine minutes of the resumption.

Then, just as the home side appeared to be cruising, Louth picked off an unbroken sequence of seven points. Points by Seán Ryan and substitute Thomas Deehan gave the home side a five-point cushion, but Darren Clarke and Ronan Carroll replied in kind as the pressure on the home defence intensified.

The game was four minutes into injury time when Darren Clarke got the finishing touch to a fine centre from Derek Crilly for a goal that left the sides deadlocked.

However, the game had one final twist a minute later when substitute Rory Guinan pointed a free to snatch a home win that lifts Offaly from the bottom rung of the divisional table.

OFFALY: P Kelly; G Rafferty, C Evans, S Sullivan; S Lonergan, J Quinn, K Slattery; A McNamee, C Carroll; N Darby (0-2, one free), S Ryan (0-1), B Darby; J Reynolds (1-0), N Smith (0-1), N McNamee (0-1). Subs: T Deehan (1-2) for Smith yellow card (24 mins), M Mitchell for B Darby (57 mins), P Sullivan for Ryan (66 mins), R Guinan (0-1, free) for N McNamee (68 mins), E Kavanagh for N Darby (73 mins).

LOUTH: S Reynolds; D Finnegan, C Goss, J O’Brien; P Rath, M Fanning, G Hoey; R Carroll (0-3), B White (0-2, one 45), P Keenan, A Hoey; JP Rooney (0-2), S Lennon, P Smith (0-1). Subs: D Clarke (1-2) for Lennon yellow card, (28 mins), A Reid for R Finnegan (46 mins), D Crilly for Hoey (49 mins), D Reid for Keenan (66 mins).

Referee: V Neary (Mayo).

Who is E Kavanagh and wht club is he from?

[Lone Shark]

Eddie Kavanagh of Tubber. Generally plays midfield for the club if I'm not mistaken, didn't really have time to see him take up any position on the field yesterday. Everybody was dropping back at that stage.

[Phoenix]

In response to John - Shaper is the latest in the line of Reynolds brothers (i.e. John Reynolds) and Super is Alan McNamee. Both played well yesterday and the winning point gave us a real lift.

We have to thank the interim management for promoting Lonergan and he has proven to be a real find. Maybe his brothers are worth looking at? Sean Ryan deserves credit for that match-winning run up the stand sideline, especially after the disappointment of losing a Fitzgibbon Cup final on Saturday.

Kudos to Richie for sticking Conor Carroll in. He is a real scrapper and did a lot of good work.

Great to see Tommo Deehan going so well in the soft. He should be even better on top of the ground in the summer.

[red exile]

who was the lad in the orange top with the crew cut on the offaly back room team runnin around the pitch yesterday.he covered some ground . is he the fitness coach or a selector. he looked very keen anyway .roarin encouragement and keepin the lads on their toes.that wind was worth 8pts to the team playin with it and louth only scored 1pt against it

[True Red]

That was most likely John Doran. A PT instructor with the army and one of the most intense men you are ever likely to meet. He has been taking the fitness training with Offaly and he has been working alongside Cribbin for a number of years now.

[bracknaghboy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_Buzzcut

I found Doran's profile!

[black and red exile]

That was heartwarming yesterday. It's a long time since we saw an Offaly football team perform with such blood and thunder as we saw in O'Connor park yesterday. What character after our goalkeeper did his David James trick, again. Delighted to see Tommo performing to something like his 06 form again, and that winning point from Rory will do his confidence the world of good considering he got a raw deal by not being put on in the Lonford game.

[bracknaghboy]

Fellas were actualy trying hard for every ball, running after even the lost cause ball. We have not seen that from an Offaly team in the last 4 years. We are still limited but there is potential and looking at the league tables in the paper this evening we are only 1 point off top spot in Divsion 3!

[Georgio1]

Is the game next week end definitely on in Thurles? Would fancy us big time there. But have a suspicion we could be ferried down to Ardfinnan or somewhere like that! Some difference in the drive, and playing the game in front of 1500 or so in Thurles would leave it neutral enough. Tipp beating Limerick will leave this a tricky tie as both Tipp and Offaly would have been eyeing up 2 points from this fixture. The win will make it even moreso on both sides.
If we could grind out a win, it would set up a good trio of games, and we might get on a bit of a roll for the end of the league. Looking at how well the Lillies are going we will need to up the ante big time!

[Lone Shark]

Not unlike yourself, I'd fear that the game will be refixed for Ardfinnan by the end of the week. As you say, with a little bit of optimism back in the setup, I could see Thurles having as many Offaly supporters as Tipp people in the crowd, while ardfinnan is another matter entirely.

I'm still not sure what to make of Tipperary to be honest this year. John Evans has obviously got them going very well, they competed well against Down and got a great win against Cavan - however neither of those results shocked me too much - it was last Sunday that made me sit up and take notice. Barry Grogan is obviously a huge threat but I really know very little about them otherwise. Certainly they'll be thinking that a win on Sunday will leave them in a great position for promotion so I wouldn't be expecting an easy ride by any stretch of the imagination.

Still, if the lads carry the same workrate from the last game, plus players like the McNamees and Karol Slattery will get closer to their real form with every game they play, there are grounds for optimism.

Kildare is a world away yet, but at least you'd be less worried about shipping an unmerciful beating now.

[Lone Shark]

Just to throw in my player assessments for the day...

Kelly 70% responsible for the goal conceded, however it should be noted that he wouldn't have had to charge out of the goals if Clarke was being marked. Did well to save the penalty too, though it was a shocking kick from Lennon. Some people have said that his high kickouts were not suited to the wind, however I'd prefer to see a keeper kick them hard and high only to get held up than to go for a two-iron type trajectory and run the risk of a full forward getting a hand on one and taking a handy score.

My concern would be more about what did Mulhall do wrong? Playing in goals is not like playing anywhere else out the field - these guys need confidence, the type of confidence you get from management trusting you and not feeling like you're one mistake away from being dropped. Alan Mulhall did nothing wrong, so to my mind he should have been allowed keep the jersey.

Rafferty A lot of people seem to think that Raff had a bad day, I thought myself that he did okay. His confidence took a hammering with the ludicrous policy of playing him at centre forward and he'll need a few games back in familiar territory to find his feet. Having said that, he stood up well, he kept his discipline and didn't foul and I thought he did okay considering. Marking Grogan the next day could be another matter.

Evans Lives on the edge of being whistled every time, but is finally coming back to himself. Was excellent on Sunday and is getting his sharpness back.

Sullivan For 70 minutes he was man of the match, absolutely suffocating Hoey and minding his corner brilliantly - before he gave that awful ball from the free at the end. His distribution is not sometimes, but he's probably our best man marker now. Again, he too balanced aggression and discipline perfectly - only gave away one free that I can recall, and that was very harsh too.

Lonergan Excellent stuff. Used the ball well, read breaks, got forward, marshalled his man - don't know how he missed that point, but otherwise a top class display. Looks to be making the shirt his.

Quinn Didn't feature on the ball as much as I'd like, but when he did get possession he carried the ball extremely well. He's well able to break the tackle and also looks like the man in possession of the jersey for the foreseeable future.

Slattery Still not himself, but showed touches of his ability. You wouldn't worry about him come championship though - it was encouraging almost to see an Offaly defence play well without Karol running the show.

Alan McNamee Started brilliantly, using the ball well and getting up for kickouts, before fading badly as the game went on. His two turnovers for Louth points that brought them from five points down to three with injury time looming could have been very costly, but thankfully it all ended well. I believe he's going well in training and he appears to be in better form than he has been for some years, so hopefully he'll add the required consistency in the coming weeks.

Carroll Typified the attitude of the team - fought for every ball, including ones that it made no sense to go for, while making an absolute nuisance of himself at all times. His distribution was patchy, but his workrate was top class and for that alone he deserves praise. He certainly has done enough to hold the jersey for next Sunday at least, and as he gets more football at this level, he can only improve. (Did he play Sigerson with anyone in the past few years - if not, it's understandable that he struggled initially to bridge the gap between intermediate club and senior county)

Niall Darby I still think that he's a little on the weak side by times, but he is well able to take a score and for that alone he's likely to hold on. He'll need to work on his passing too - plus I never understand, when he's playing with Rhode he takes on defenders all day and is an absolute terror to mark - where is all that attacking spirit with Offaly? I think he could really benefit from being let off the leash a bit so to speak.

Ryan For a guy who played two Fitzgibbon cup matches on Friday and Saturday, including a heartbreaking final loss, he was excellent. I thought he got a raw deal from the ref with a few calls and he did struggle to hold on to the ball on a couple of occasions, but when he got moving the only answer Louth had was to foul him. Won three scoreable frees with his running and the run along the line for Niall Darby's late point was incredible. I'm really looking forward to seeing him getting a sustained run in the team.

Brian Darby I'm inclined to think that Brian is either a corner back or nothing, since I've yet to see him really get involved in any game in an attacking sense. Whatever about playing him at wing back, wing forward makes no sense - he simply doesn't want to be there, or he doesn't look like he does at any rate. He won a few frees all right, but I'm thinking that he may come second to other options in the future.

Reynolds As with Darby above, Reynolds is another guy who to my mind is a one position guy - either put him in the full line, or don't play him. I think yesterday proved that again. He shows for every ball, he never hides and he can do damage close to goals. With Deehan showing signs of form as well there will be serious competition for the corner spots, but I hope we don't go back down the road of playing him at wing forward again - this is clearly his position.

Smith On the one hand you could say that it was a harsh yellow card, on the other hand you could say that he had two chances to walk away and took neither. I'd lean towards the latter myself. I don't understand playing him at full forward if you're not going to horse it in on top of his head, and even then I'd prefer a guy who instinctively broke a ball than a guy who fielded it in that case. Still not on form and I can't see him being picked for this role over McManus.

Niall McNamee First time I've ever seen him substituted, and in fairness I don't think anyone could argue with it. He wasn't on his game all day and clearly needs a bit more time to get back into the swing of things.

Deehan It wasn't so much the 1-2 he scored that was encouraging, as much as the way that he looked eager again - eager to get on the ball, eager to take a guy on, generally much more like the brash Tommo that we first saw three or four years ago. If he can find that spirit again, then we really could be on to something.

None of the other subs were on for more than fifteen minutes, so couldn't really rate them - though Guinan and Sullivan both had very significant cameo roles!!