Kildare 0-14 Offaly 0-13
A ugly row erupted at the final whistle after Kildare edged out Offaly in a fantastic tie to qualify for the quarter-final in Tullamore yesterday evening.
A number of players and supporters were involved in the unfortunate scenes, with a number of punches being thrown as a relieved Kildare side celebrated a nerve tingling win.
The winning point came from a free from sub, Ethan O’Donoghue a minute into injury time but Offaly will be wondering how they lost.
They had a number of goal chances over the hour with the best falling to sub, Jordan Hayes who blazed wide with the goal at his mercy two minutes from time.
Kildare had reason to be grateful to Conor Hartley and Jimmy Hyland, who were particularly outstanding in the first half and contributed nine of their fourteen points between them.
With the wind on their backs, Kildare led by 0-10 to 0-7 at half time and just scraped it in a thrill a minute second half.
Kildare: D Campbell; R Slattery, M Joyce, D Lawler; C Duffy, S Ryan, D O'Sullivan; D Courtney, R Feely; B McLoughlin (0-1), C Hartley (0-3), T Archibald (0-1); C Kelly (0-1), M Kelly, J Hyland (0-6, 3f).
Subs - E O'Donoghue (0-1, f) for M Kelly (H/T), S Lawlor for Archibald (47m), S Doran (0-1) for Courtney (53m), K O'Callaghan for C Kelly (55m), R Bannon for O'Sullivan (61m).
Offaly: K Kinahan; PJ Daly, C Horan, R Hynes; D Dempsey, G Smyth, A Keyes; K Higgins, C Mangan; D Hyland (0-5, 3f and 2 '45's), C Maher (0-2), J Walsh (0-1); S Tierney (0-3), S O'Brien (0-1), R Heavin (0-1, f).
Subs - J Quinn for Smyth (49m), J Hayes for Higgins (51m).
Referee - S Johnson (Louth).
