Offaly 1-16 Longford 2-12
A goal and a point from the veteran Niall McNamee deep in injury time gave Offaly a dramatic O’Byrne Cup win over Longford in Faithful Fields on Wednesday night.
Longford looked to have snatched it when sub Padraig Joyce turned the game on its head late on. Offaly were in cruise control when they led by 0-15 to 1-9 as the game entered the closing five minutes. Joyce struck for 1-2 as Longford scored 1-3 without reply to take a three-point lead.
Three minutes of injury time had elapsed when McNamee got an excellent goal and then found the space to fire over a last-gasp winner.
The first half was very much an affair of two quarters. Offaly were the better team in the first.
They started very well, firing over the first three points but were rocked by a seventh-minute goal from Dessie Reynolds. Offaly recovered well and were 0-6 to 1-1 ahead before Longford went on a spree that yielded five points without reply.
Dylan Hyland and the superb Jayson Matthews swopped frees before Aaron Leavy missed a great goal chance for Offaly, hitting the crossbar from point blank range.
Bernard Allen’s point left Offaly trailing by 1-7 to 0-8 at the break.
OFFALY: I Duffy; L Pearson, J O'Connor, N Darby; M Abbott (0-1) J Moloney (0-1), C Donoghue; D Molloy, A Leavy; J Hayes (0-1), R McNamee (0-2), A Sullivan (0-1); B Allen (0-4, 0-1 mark), N McNamee (1-1), D Hyland (0-5, 0-3 frees). Subs: C Mangan for Molloy (H-T), D Egan for Moloney (53 mins), Luke Egan for Ruari McNamee (53 mins), Ciaran Burns for Pearson (59 mins), Oisin Keenan Martin for Abbott (61 mins), Micheal Mooney for Sullivan, Kieran Dolan) for Leavy (both 67 mins).
LONGFORD: M Hughes; P Fox, R Moffett, B O'Farrell; E McCormack, A Farrell, I O'Sullivan; D Gallagher (0-3 frees), D Reynolds (1-0); D O'Connell (0-1), D Farrell (0-1), D Doherty (0-1); R McNerney, J Matthews (0-4, 0-2 frees), J Hagan. Subs: T McNevin for A Farrell (42 mins), R Fitzgibbon for D Farrell (46 mins), R Smyth for McNerney (47 mins), D Reynolds for Hagan (53 mins), Aaron Farrell for Doherty (53 mins), PJ Masterson for McCormack (56 mins), J Sheils for O'Connell (56 mins), T McGann for O'Sullivan (61m), P Joyce (1-2) for Matthews (63m), D O'Brien for Dessie Reynolds (68m).
Referee: G Hurley (Westmeath).
Laois 1-12 Meath 0-9
A strong first-half performance from Laois laid the foundation for an impressive win over Meath in bitterly cold conditions in Stradbally.
Laois had lost to Wexford by 15 points on Saturday but showed huge improvement here, racking up a 10-point lead by half time and having enough in store to hold off a second-half Meath comeback.
With Mark Barry very impressive for the home side, Laois led 0-6 to 0-2 at the first water break and Barry hit three in a row on the resumption to stretch that lead to seven. Veteran John O’Loughlin, now in his 15th season with Laois, struck for a fortuitous goal just before the break when his long-range effort deceived Andrew Colgan. It was 1-9 to 0-2 at the interval.
Excellent scores from Gareth Dillon and Evan O’Carroll either side of a fine point from the very lively James Conlon nudged Laois further clear by the 37th minute.
But Meath would completely take over from there with Conlon, David McEntee, Thomas O’Reilly and Cillian O’Sullivan all on target.
Kieran Lillis settled Laois late on by ending their scoring drought and Meath never looked like getting the goal they needed to really put the pressure on.
LAOIS: D Bolger; J Kelly, T Collins, A Mohan; S O'Flynn, J O'Loughlin (1-0), G Dillon (0-1); K Lillis, J Finn; B Byrne (0-1), P Kingston (0-1), P O'Sullivan; M Barry (0-5, 0-2 frees), E O'Carroll (0-1), S Moore (0-1 free). Subs: C Murphy for Byrne, D Kavanagh for Mohan, G Walsh for Moore (all 47 mins), C Fennessy for O'Sullivan (52 mins), P Dunne for Finn (57 mins), R Munnelly for Barry (61 mins), C Ugochuwku for Dillon, J Shelly for O'Carroll (both 71 mins).
MEATH: A Colgan; R Clarke, G McGowan, R Ryan; D Keogan, N Kane, P Harnan; M Costello, S McEntee; C O'Sullivan (0-1), D Dixon, T O'Reilly (0-2, 0-1 free); J Conlon (0-3), E Wallace, J Wallace. Subs: K Curtis for Dixon, D McEntee (0-3 frees) for J Wallace, S Finnegan for Kane (all h-t), A Kealy for Costello (50 mins), J Muldoon for E Wallace (53 mins).
Referee: K O'Brien (Westmeath).
Wicklow 1-11 Wexford 1-7
Four unanswered points in the closing six minutes helped Wicklow to an impressive victory over Wexford in their O’Byrne Cup second round game at the Bray Emmets ground.
Very little had separated the teams through the opening stages but a well executed Kevin Quinn goal after 14 minutes had the sides level 1-1 to 0-4, but Wexford finished the half strongly with Ben Brosnan’s pointed frees to lead 0-6 to 1-2 at the interval.
After Niall Hughes had extended Wexford’s lead it was Wicklow who regained the lead through points from Quinn, Craig Maguire and Paddy Cunningham. The sides were deadlocked at 1-7 each but it was Wicklow who finished the best with points from Mark Kenny and Quinn securing victory.
Wicklow: M Jackson; P O'Keane, N Devereux, E Murtagh; A Maher, Z Cullen, A Murphy; D Healy, N Donnolly; C Maguire (0-1), M Kenny (0-2), C McDonald (0-1); O Cullen (0-1); K Quinn (1-3); P Cunningham (0-3, 0-2 frees). Subs: P O'Toole for Donnelly; E Darcy for O'Keane.
Wexford: R Brooks; G Staples, G Sheehan, R Barron; J Rossiter, N Rossiter, C Carty; G Malone, N Hughes (0-1); C Feeney, D O'Toole (0-1), S Ryan; J Tubritt (0-2), E Nolan (0-1), B Brosnan (0-2, 0-2 frees). Subs: R Brooks (1-0) for Ryan; L O'Connor for Staples; A Tobin for Feeney; M Rossiter for Brosnan.
Referee: D Stynes (Dublin).
