OFFALY 1.15 LOUTH 0.16

[black and red exile]

Very hard fought win by the lads yesterday, leading at half time 1.8 to 0.6 with a very strong breeze with the goal coming from Anton Sullivan, Offaly needed at least the five point cushion with a very gutsy Louth side throwing everything at us in the second half. The wee County finally got the equaliser with time up and with six minutes of time added on being announced we would have been quite happy there and then to take the game to extra time but great credit to the lads they dug deep to secure a victory with two points well into injury time from Bernard Allen and Graham Guilfoyle. Offaly now go on to play Wicklow in Tullamore on Saturday May 23rd in the Quarter final after the Garden County hammered that joke of a County that pretend to field so called football teams, Kilkenny by 35 points.
OFFALY SCORERS, A.SULLIVAN 1.3
B.ALLEN 0.5[2 FREES]
G.GUILFOYLE 0.3
NOEL A GRAHAM, MICHAEL BRAZIL, DARREN SCANLON,MARK YOUNG 0.1 EACH.

[Kemo Sabe]

wasnt easy but they deserved it .as we seen lastyear this bunch of lads have great guts and will to win .i thought we wer in trouble when they leveled the game and 6 minutes was giving as injury time.but as we seen lastyear these lads dug deep and and took the game to louth for all that 6 minutes .it was good to see a good spread of scores among the team .i can only see these lads improving again and they are our best chance of silverwear thia year .

[True Red]

Didnt make it in to this one but does anyone have an idea of the attendance that was in Pairc Ui Chonchur on Saturday?

[Lone Shark]

To echo the above, it's great to see any of our teams dig deep and pull out a hard fought win like that, however I'm not sure how to take it in the sense that Dublin absolutely destroyed these lads - were Louth actually a much improved outfit, or was it simply a case of Offaly perhaps not playing that well against them? Louth underage teams traditionally haven't been good, I'm just curious as to whether or not this is a decent side that made us work for it or whether we still have a lot of work to do.

[Kemo Sabe]

To echo the above, it's great to see any of our teams dig deep and pull out a hard fought win like that, however I'm not sure how to take it in the sense that Dublin absolutely destroyed these lads - were Louth actually a much improved outfit, or was it simply a case of Offaly perhaps not playing that well against them? Louth underage teams traditionally haven't been good, I'm just curious as to whether or not this is a decent side that made us work for it or whether we still have a lot of work to do.

i think it was a bit of both.offaly can play alot better and i think louth played close to their max .from reading the louth site there was big things expected of the current louth minor team and was supposed to be the best team they had in 5 years .there is no doubt we have room for improvment but i have great faith in the minors and reckon  will give us a few good days this summer .very poor crowd at the game saturday i thought there would have being a better turnout ,

[keephercountry]

I thought the offaly lads made very hard work of this team in the last 8 minutes or so they seemed to be trying to hold out Louth rather than trying to push on and win the game .
In thye first half we seen the offaly forwards score some nice free flowing points but as the game got older offaly started to change their tactics at one stage just leaving Bernard Allen inside on his own.
I think Offaly, if things were left the way the were would have won by a more comfortable margin .Ive seeing it happen with young Offaly teams before even in last years leinster final the more thats at stake the more definsive we become .
I dont know if its a managment thing or a negititvity or disbelife in players but i think if they can get overit this year they can win Leinster.
Not takin anything away from the lads they got the job done against a Louth team who seemed to be well prepared and think must have improved since Dublin .