Donegal - 0-16, Offaly - 0-13: Donegal made the long trip to Tullamore worthwhile by defeating Offaly by 0-16 to 0-13 to record their first win in Division 1A.
An away win did not seem likely at half-time, for despite having faced a strong wind Offaly turned over leading by 0-10 to 0-8 and at that stage must have fancied their prospects.
However, they had a shock in store as it was Donegal who had by far the better of the second-half exchanges against a home side which faded badly in the final quarter and failed to score during the closing 21 minutes.
Both sides had to make a late change to their original selections. John Kenny came in at centre-half forward for Offaly in place of Seán Grennan, while the visitors had Raymond Sweeney on in place of Paddy Campbell in defence, with James Gallagher filling the left-corner forward spot which had been left vacant.
Referee Paddy Russell had a busy afternoon producing the yellow card to six players, four from Offaly, and awarded a total of 54 frees.
Although the game was disjointed as a result of many stoppages, there was no lack of excitement. Six times in the first half the sides were level and twice more after the break but the longer it lasted the tighter became the visitors' grip on the game.
Donegal led four times before a late spurt, which yielded points for Donie Claffey (two), Adrian Mahon and Paschal Kellaghan, gave Offaly a 0-10 to 0-8 interval lead.
Within nine minutes of the resumption Donegal had drawn level and the sides were still deadlocked at 0-13 each by the 56th minute. It was then Offaly began to show signs of tiring and despite making several late substitutions they failed to reply to points by Adrian Sweeney, Kevin Rafferty and Johnny McCafferky which tilted the scales in favour of the Ulster side.
DONEGAL: T Blake; M Crossan, E Doherty, N McGinley; R Sweeney, K Browne, D Diver (0-1); J Gildea, J McGuinness; B McLoughlin (0-1), M Hegarty (0-3), B Roper (0-3); A Gallagher, A Sweeney (0-5), J Gallagher (0-1). Subs: K Cassidy for Browne; J McCafferky (0-1) for J Gallagher; K Rafferty (0-1) for McLoughlin; C McFadden for A Gallagher; C Toye for Roper.
OFFALY: P Kelly; C Daly, G Rafferty, B Mooney; J Hurst, A McNamee, K Slattery (0-1); J Grennan, A Mahon; C Quinn (0-2), J Kenny (0-1), B Malone (0-3); D Claffey (0-2), N Coughlan, P Kellaghan (0-4). Subs: D Ryan for Quinn, F Cullen for Kenny, M Stones for Slattery.
Referee: P Russell (Tipperary).
Although fielding a much weakened side which included only two of the players named on the programme, Wexford hurlers still proved good enough to defeat Offaly by 1-10 to 0-10 in the semi-final of the Walsh Cup in Lusmagh yesterday.
SCORERS: Wexford - D O'Brien 0-4, E Doyle 0-3, D Kent 1-0, K Furlong, D Stamp, A Fenlon 0-1 each, Offaly - J Dooley 0-3, K Kelly 0-2, D Kelly, G Oakley, D Tanner, B Carroll, J Ryan 0-1 each.
