Division Two Semi-finals: Offaly 1-16 Kildare 1-8 If the Kildare side drove home from Portlaoise yesterday by way of Stradbally they will have noticed a blue handwritten sign on the way into the town. The sign offered condolences to the Division Two league semi-final losers from all at the home of the Leinster champions. Such hubris can be costly in the long run but in this instance it can only have raised a few smiles.
Kildare never got going yesterday. After a league filled with promise they reached for the gun yesterday and found the holster empty. And so they watched another neighbouring power gain momentum and a place in a Division Two league final.
Offaly are a work in progress. After the scandalous sacking of Paul O'Kelly they began the league modestly enough but have started to look like a side who could again do damage on fine summer days. The watching Páidí Ó Sé will have gone away with plenty to think about.
Gerry Fahey has copperfastened the promise O'Kelly had tapped into and the forwards look tasty indeed. Colm Quinn ducked and dived cleverly, Niall McNamee looks better each time you see him, and with Neville Coughlan and Roy Malone shuttling up and down the spine of the attack they want for neither guile nor muscle.
They had scored 11 goals before yesterday and though it took them till the final kick of the game to score their 12th the fluency with which they cut through the Kildare defence had alarm bells ringing in Pádraig Nolan's head all afternoon.
Kildare scored just three times from play yesterday. The half-forward line failed to score and through much of the day it was there that the Kildare ambition broke down.
Kildare's goal with 10 minutes left revived interest a little, subs Morgan O'Sullivan and Tadhg Fennin combining for the latter to slip the ball past Pauric Kelly.
But Offaly finished with a lovely grace note. Substitute Tommy Deehan shimmied, dummied and fed Niall McNamee, who slipped a quick ball through to James Coughlan, who finished in style. Another neighbourhood squabble over. Summer looms.
OFFALY: P Kelly; S Sullivan, C Evans, S Brady; B Mooney (0-1), C Daly, K Slattery; C McManus, J Grennan; P Kellaghan (0-1), R Malone (0-3) A McNamee; C Quinn (0-4, 2f), N Coughlan (0-2), N McNamee (0-3, 2f). Subs: T Deehan (0-2) for Quinn (56 mins); M Daly for Grennan (60 mins); J Coughlan (1-0) for Malone (67 mins); B Malone for Coughlan (69); J Hurst for Brady (70).
KILDARE: E Murphy; B Lacey, D Hendy, A McLoughlin; E Callaghan, G Ryan, K Ennis; D Earley, A Barry; P Hurley, D McCormack, R Sweeney; P Brennan (0-4, all frees), C Dempsey (0-1), J Doyle (0-3, 2f). Subs: M O'Sullivan for Hurley (26 mins); T Fennin (1-0) for Dempsey (42) A Rainbow for McCormack (50), D Lyons for Barry (63).
Referee: M Daly (Mayo).
