Fourteen-man Offaly showed that the loss of a player at the start of the second half was no handicap as they carved out this two point win over Wicklow at Aughrim yesterday. They had their wing forward Ciaran McManus sent off three minutes into the second half after he had scored his second point to tie the scores for a third time in this keenly contested match.

But then Offaly dug deep, and building from the back caught Wicklow on the break for vital scores. The Offaly defence, led by anchorman Sean Grennan at centre back, had been suspect in the first half but they now got to grips with their opponents and Wicklow's forwards faded.

Wicklow were out-scored by six points to three in the second period as James Brady, Finbarr Cullen, midfielder James Grennan, free-taker Colm Quinn and roving full forward Mel Keenaghan, all turned in fine performances. . But Wicklow led by 0-5 to 0-4 at the break and were in the hunt right up to the final whistle. Tommy Gill tied the scores for a sixth time with a Wicklow point on 67 minutes but Offaly struck twice in the closing stages for the winning points from David Connolly and midfielder James Grennan.

OFFALY: K Furlong; C Daly, P Mulvihill, J Brady; J Kilmurray, S Grennan, J Stewart, R Mooney, J Grennan (0-1), C Quinn (0-3), F Cullen, C McManus (0-2), P Moran, M Keenaghan (0-1), D Connolly (0-2). Subs: E Egan for P Mulvihill, J Greene for J Stewart, R Malone (0-1) for P Moran

WICKLOW: T Murphy; S Nolan, B O'Donovan, T Burke; B O hAnnaidh, M Coffey, B Whelan; D Coffey (0-4), B Sheehan; O O hAnnaidh (0-1), T Doyle (0-1), T Hannon, T Gill (0-1), R Coffey, K O'Brien (0-1). Subs: K Byrne for T Hannon, A Foley for M Coffey.

Referee: P O'Toole (Longford).