Offaly 0-14 Limerick 1-19
A Declan Hannon goal and a flurry of points at the end of each half proved decisive as Limerick eased to their first win over Offaly in three attempts yesterday afternoon, a victory that maintains their course towards a promotion showdown against neighbours Clare on Sunday week.
“This is a fixture that has caused us problems in the past, I’m not really sure why, but it was a good win today and three games in with three wins is exactly where we want to be” said TJ Ryan afterwards, before going on to express some concern at his side’s final tally of sixteen wides.
Eleven of those errant strikes were in the first half but Offaly failed to open the door to the knocking opportunity, instead racking up fourteen wides of their own and committing a grievous error to enable Hannon to score the game’s only goal shortly before half time.
The Faithful County had rallied to draw level from three points down when Seán Gardiner played a lateral pass across his own goal that was intercepted and slammed to the net by the Limerick full forward, while four points in the last four minutes consolidated the visitors’ strong position.
Offaly were marginally the better team for the bulk of the second half but they too failed to hit the target as frequently as they might have liked, while they were also hindered by John Keenan’s decision not to allow James Mulrooney’s goal with fifteen minutes to play, instead pulling play back for an earlier foul on Joe Bergin.
“Certainly I thought advantage might have been allowed, I thought the ball had crossed the line before he blew the whistle” lamented Eamon Kelly afterwards, though the manner in which Limerick tacked on four late points suggested that they always had more in the tank.
Offaly: J Dempsey; N Wynne, C McDonald 0-1, P Rigney; D Shortt, C Doughan, P Camon; S Kinsella, S Gardiner 0-1; P Murphy, C Egan 0-1, S Ryan; S Dooley 0-8, (5f, 1 s/l), J Bergin 0-2, J Sampson 0-1. Subs: J Mulrooney for Murphy (46), P Guinan for Sampson (48), S Cleary for Kinsella (56), L Langton for Gardiner (61), J Gorman for Ryan (68), Gardiner for McDonald (70+3).
Limerick: N Quaid; T Condon, R McCarthy, R English; D Morrissey, D Byrne 0-3f, B O'Connell; S Hickey 0-1, P Browne 0-3; G O'Mahony 0-2, T Morrissey 0-3, C Lynch; D Reidy, D Hannon 1-6 (2f), B Nash. Subs: S Tobin for Reidy (48), D O'Donovan (0-1) for Hannon (54), W McNamara for D Morrissey (61), M Ryan for T Morrissey (68), P Ryan for Nash (70+1).
Referee: John Keenan (Wicklow).
