Offaly vs Westmeath NFL 10/04/2011

[Bord na Mona man]

If you've gotten your vaccinations in time, Mullingar is the place to be on Sunday.

Offaly have a 100% away record in the league this year, without ever excelling. however they've shown steel in coming out on the right side of tight games.

It is likely to be a close and low scoring affair in the Dunnes Stores shopping centre.
A hop of a ball off a trolley, or a defender tripping over a palette could be the difference.

The weather should be good and hopefully the result will be better.

[Plain of the Herbs]

I suppose a repeat of 1990/91 is out of the question? Westies 0-1 Offaty 2-25 at Moate. Oh happy days.

The Westies have beaten Offaly a mere twice in the last 13 League meetings going back to the mid 60s.

[The Magpie]

I suppose a repeat of 1990/91 is out of the question? Westies 0-1 Offaty 2-25 at Moate. Oh happy days.

I could well be wrong, but I think a spritely Brendan Lowry scored both goals that day and gave the Westmeath backs a torrid time.

[InDublin]

Has the team been announced yet? Same old story - can't find it anywhere...

[wazzaman]

I hope we do these Westmeath pricks on Sunday

[SearingDrive]

Has the team been announced yet? Same old story - can't find it anywhere...

Why the great mystery in finding Offaly teams listed in the media, hurling and football. Is it some cunning plan to keep us all guessing until the match starts?.
Division 3 football isn't going to cause any great excitement.
Sunday's game v Westmeath will be a tough one for Offaly playing Westmeath in their own backyard, with promotion assured for the winners. I. .t will go down to the last minute. Pat Flanagan facing his native county, and some Clara players he managed in a former life.
The Tipperary game might be costly for Offaly, had we won that, we would now be promoted.

[Offaly2010]

Offaly team to play Westmeath:

1.Alan Mulhall
2.Shane Sullivan
3.Scott Brady
4.Sean Pender
5.Brian Darby
6.Karol Slattery
7.James Keane
8.Richie Dalton
9.Brian Connor
10.Graham Guilfoyle
11.Niall McNamee
12.Ciaran McManus
13.Bernard Allen
14.John Reynolds
15.Thomas Deehan.

Westmeath team to play Offaly:

1.Gary Connaughton
2.Francis Boyle
3.Kieran Gavin
4.John Gaffey
5.Ger Egan
6.Aidan Finnan
7.Doran Harte
8.Brendan Murtagh
9.Denis Coroon
10.Paul Sharry
11.David Glennon
12.Conor Lynam
13.Paul Greville
14.Dessie Dolan
15.Denis Glennon.

[DAF]

Great game of football with a great crowd had a real championship feel.We threw it away as we missed 4 good chances to get the equaliser at the end.


Questions though

Why does Niall Smith not start. He is an exceptional midfielder his fielding ability is brilliant and for my money he is one of the best midfielders in Ireland. He gave an exhibition in the second half today.

Why are Offaly not fit are they not doing enough training or is the standard of training poor, Westmeath were way sharper than Offaly today.

Why is Scott Brady playing full back on a hot day on hard pitch when we know he will get skinned for pace.Joe Quinn made a big impact when he was brought on in the second half?


Why do we refuse to send the ball in long on top of McNamee when the ball is kicked in direct he generally wins it or gives a good break and when we kick it in long it causes panic in opposition defences yet we flute around far too much.

Why is Flanagan not the Offaly manager he is an Offaly man and looks like he has Westmeath very well trained unlike ourselves.It seems ridiculous to have an outside manager training us when there is a perfectly good manager training one of our major rivals.Cribben is very slow to make changes and if we had brought on Wuinn and Smith earlier when it was obvious Brady and connor were struggling we may have won today.

Is there anybody in Offaly who can kick frees again we missed scorable frees and the lack of freetaking has cost us promotion as we would have beaten Tipp if we had a freetaker and we could have get something from todays match but for poor frees again.

[faithfullad]

Great game, great conditions and great atmosphere. Over the course of the 70 minutes Westmeath were the better team, their forwards really were on fire and rarely missed the mark all game. Brady, Darby and Sullivan all got roastings and credit to Joe Quinn for improving things when he came on. The midfield was also dreadful in the 1st half and Brian Connor was surprisingly poor. Smith was fantastic when he came on and yes he has to start now, but I won't be complaining about him not starting, Connor and Dalton didn't do anything to warrant getting dropped( If anything, people should be angry he wasn't brought on earlier). Guilfoyle was quite poor, Deehan, Reynolds and McManus weren't good either, Allen took his goals well. As for McNamee, he played alright for the first hour or so and won most of his ball until the last 10 minutes, and then he completely disappeared and made a lot of mistakes, you would expect a lot more from him in such a situation.

Overall, not a bad performance but it is worrying that Westmeath scored 19 times to our 13 and that was without Denis Glennon for most of the game, still I suppose it is something to build on for the Championship in May and a possible rematch with Westmeath in Mullingar in June.

[turk]

This was a good game with some good scores and good football.
We were close at the end and at one point down it appeared Bracken was fouled but no free was given and Westmeath kicked over their last point.
However, we didn't score enough or frequently enough to win this game. Many of Westmeath's scores were giveaways and scores that were taken too easily for them.

Niall Smith coming on certainly turned the game and gave us a chance. We dominated from then on. As we had really struggled in that sector in the 15 minutes before half time and the first ten minutes of the second half we can say we were slow to make changes there.

At the very end, Westmeath defended well and made us resort to rash shots, hurried and inaccurate.

There are positives to take from this division 3 campaign but it is a disappointment to be staying in division 3.

[townman]

thats it in a nutshell we are still in division 3 for next year they are going no where under cribbin
there lads looking for Joe Dooleys head and he has them in division 1 and could be there next season
as well. when your best forward is nearly 37 years old say's it all .

[Long John]

I was ver disappointed with the performance. Went to the game without any great confidence. The one bit of hope I had is that Westmeath are a poor outfit.

Well we can say we were very unlucky not to get that free in at the end but the bottom line is it was 19 scores to 13. The goals kept Offaly in it.

I was sick to see Dolan doing so much damage. He's hardly the player he was 5/6 years ago and most teams would handle him.
Scott Brady as Ive said before should be Midfield. He's not a full back. I saw him get many a roasting in club league games playing there. He hasnt the legs for midfield some people would say but anytime he plays for Clara at midfield he is the one player that pulls them along. What started in midfield yesterday was a disaster.

McManus had a poor game, Guilfoyle and reynolds not up to it. Niall Mac was able to cause problems but didnt get enough of the ball and as somebody said started to make some unusual errors at a crucial stage in the game. Still our best forward by a distance.

Division 3 is the standard where this team is at. Im afraid to say no improvement as been made. Its worryingly bad.

[shamrockgael]

i think we have reason for optimism...we finished the stronger but overall westmeath deserved their win...smith was stunning when he came on...an one would have to question team selection is on reputation more than ability...allen finished his goals well and he will be a real player in the not to distant future...guillfoyle is not up to it...yet. he has savage pace but sumtn missing. brian connor was so poor it was scandolous he wasnt taken off after half hour....
we can still improve and go on a good run in lienster provided we learn from yesterday

[the bare biffo]

You cant concede 19 scores and expect to win a football match.
Its easy to criticise the fullback line and they do lack pace but yesterday they were trying to hold back a flood.
WH were so dominant in the middle and half forward line the full back line were left chasin shadows.
In fairness to Scott Brady he made a few good interceptions.
K Slattery has been a great player for Offaly, he still has a lot to offer but not at No 6
B Connor was anonymous and R Dalton did some good things but OY were wiped out until N Smith came on.
G Guilfoyle should have seen the line earlier. Cant see any justification for playing Niall Mac anywhere except close to goal.
T Deehan and J Reynolds tried hard (great goal line clearance ) but the ball in was either too slow coming or up in the air.
Ciaran Mac maybe not his best but his scores kept OY in the game in the first half.
N Smith was unbelievable when he came on it looked like one of those days where you become a magnet for the ball, one time he went up, didnt get it but as he came down the ball fell into his hands, that sort of day. J Quinn also improved things when he came on and P Bracken struck me as someone that would be usefull with a bit more confidence.

In general OY's play was too slow, numerous times getting caught in posession and losing posession due to rediculously short passing.
I dont know if this is anything to do with tactics or just poor decision making by the player on the ball.

You would have to question the starting selection and more worryingly the slowness to make changes by the management.

Overall I'd say pushing for promotion in Div 3 is probably where OY are at right now. That said Wexford and Westmeath are pretty much at the same level so a decent championship run is a possibility.

[Phoenix]

Promotion from Division 3 should be do-able next year with Sligo and Antrim, Longford and Roscommon joining us. Some tasty games there (I'm sure the Bare Biffo would agree). I think that's still our level, as yesterday proved. It was only the Offaly spirit plus an out-of-this-world display from Niall Smith which gave us the chance to draw it yesterday. We were so close to going up and Offaly have improved over the course of the last year but maybe we're still not good enough.

We have to create a pattern or formation that isolates our best forwards on a defender in space and prevents our defenders from being isolated. I suppose that means our half forwards have to get back immediately once we lose the ball and we have to fight for turnovers. Yesterday Westmeath managed to do all that better than Offaly.

Some encouraging signs - Niall Smith obviously but also some lovely score-taking from Offaly until the last few minutes and different players played well at times in the game. Great game in the sunshine and at least Offaly brought it down to where the referee could have promoted them with that possible free in the last minute.