Longford minors suffer heavy defeat against Offaly

Offaly produced a really composed, efficient and admirable display to record a big win over Longford in the second round of the Leinster Minor Football Championship in Faithful Fields, Kilcormac on Tuesday evening.

Offaly . . . 6-23   Longford . . . 1-12

A defeat would have put Offaly out but this win secures a place in a preliminary quarter-final at least. An Offaly defeat by Westmeath in their final group game next week and a Longford win over Dublin would put  Longford, Dublin and Offaly on two points with scoring difference determining which two go through – Westmeath are safely qualified with wins over Longford and Dublin.

There is every chance of Offaly losing to Westmeath – that game has been put back a week to Tuesday, April 21st because of school tours – but the chances of Longford beating Dublin appear slim. 

Even if that did happen, Offaly are through. Scoring difference would only apply in the games involving Offaly, Dublin and Longford – after losing to Dublin by seven points in the first round, Offaly now have a +23 difference from those games and both Dublin and Longford can't overturn that.

This was an impressive display by Offaly, who built on a solid showing in their first round loss to Dublin. It was too easy in a lot of ways and a result of this nature always has to be taken with a grain of salt. 

Older supporters remember Offaly minor footballers destroying Longford in the first round in 2010 and then losing to them in the Leinster final – this Longford team is most unlikely to make this type of recovery but Offaly can't read anything into it.

At the same time, they have to be very pleased with their evening's work. They performed and played some very good football. They were hungry and while you could question the way they tried to manufacture late goals and really hammer nails into the Longford coffin, with scoring difference possibly coming into the equation, they would have been told by management to be ruthless and had to be.

On a perfect evening for football, they were excellent in the first half and had the game won at half-time when they led by 2-14 to 0-6.

Offaly didn't have a wide until the 30th minute when midfielder John Carroll was off target and their conversion rate was very good, though they could very easily have added another couple of goals.

It was clear from the start that Offaly were the better side and they had 1-1 on the board within five minutes, Oliver Goulding scoring the goal after Dara Waldon sent him in.

Paddy Burns got a couple of excellent two point frees and Offaly were 1-7 to 0-3 ahead when Jamie Harvey scored their second goal in the 17th minute.

Offaly should have had two more goals at this stage as Dara Waldon over-carried with a great chance in the 9th minute and Darragh Stewart blazed over the bar with the goal at his mercy in the 14th minute. 

Longford looked a very mediocre team in the first half. Four of their points came from two two pointers from Oisn McHugh and Niall O’Donnell and they struggled to create anything up front against a tenacious Offaly defence.

A fourteen point half-time lead was a fair reflection of the difference between the teams in the first half and while you can never be certain with young U-17s, it would have taken a serious collapse for Offaly to lose from here.

1-2 at the start of the second half, Paddy Burns getting in for the goal, ensured that this was never going to happen. Longford had a brief rally but it was all of a futile nature. They got the next two points through Eoin Beattie and Conor Shannon but Darragh Stewart powered through for Offaly's fourth goal in the 41st minute, 4-17 to 0-9.

Longford got a soft goal in the 43rd minute, Robert Rowan scrambling Senan Buckley's free to the net but it didn't raise a murmur from the visiting support. By this stage, Longford were well and truly deflated and Offaly supporters took no joy in watching that, fully aware that there are much stiffer tests ahead. 

Longford only managed two more points and Offaly added 2-6. Subs Shane Lawless and Sean Monahan got the goals and Offaly could very easily have reached double figures with goals.

THE SCORERS

Offaly: Paddy Burns 1-7 (2 x 2pf, 1 '45', 1f), Oliver Goulding 1-3 (2f), Dara Waldron 0-5, Darragh Stewart 1-2, Jamie Harvey and Shane Lawless 1-1 each, Sean Monahan 1-0, Cathal Carroll, Patrick Duffy, Evan Daly and Oisin Pender 0-1 each.

Longford: Robert Rowan 1-1, Oisin McHugh 0-3 (1 2p), Conor Shannon, Niall O’Donnell (2p) and Leon Madden (1f) 0-2 each, Senan Buckley (f) and Eoin Beattie 0-1 each.

OFFALY: Ryan Casey; Cormac Staunton, Oran Kenny, Jake Conlon; James Slevin, Cathal Carroll, Stephen Murrihy; John Carroll, Patrick Duffy; Evan Daly, Darragh Stewart, Jamie Harvey; Oliver Goulding, Paddy Burns, Dara Waldron. 

Subs:- Sean Monahan for Harvey (45m), Shane Lawless for Goulding (45m), Oisin Pender for Burns (48m), Sean O'Shea for Stewart (48m), Robbie Minnock for Duffy (50m).

LONGFORD: Jack Cassidy (Rathcline); Sean Hagan (Clonguish), Jack O’Farrell (Carrickedmond),  Brayden Francis (Fr Manning Gaels); Oren McNerney (Dromard), Niall O’Donnell (St Mary’s Granard), Shane Hannify (Fr Manning Gaels); Cillian Fagan (Mullinalaghta St Columba’s), Robert Rowan (Kenagh); Oisin McHugh (Grattans), Senan Buckley (Clonguish), Conor Shannon (Killoe Emmet Og); Troy Tiernan (Grattans), Eoin Beattie (Cashel), Leon Madden (Colmcille). 

Subs:- Daire Toher (Clonguish) for Tiernan, injured (14m), Ruairi Gibbons (Fr Manning Gaels) for Hannify (40m), Sean Finlass (Ballymahon) for O'Farrell (48m), Charlie Reilly (Dromard) for McHugh (54m), Ruairi Flynn (Clonguish) for Shannon (60m).

Referee: Lee Moore (Kildare).