Offaly Advance to next round of Qualifiers
Offaly 0-17 London 1-7
In front of just over 900 spectators Offaly recovered from the one point defeat by Westmeath recording a seven point victory over London at O’Connor Pk on Saturday afternoon. It took Offaly a long time to blow away the cobwebs of the Mullingar defeat, but once they got their noses in front early in the second half the result was never in doubt.
The early exchanges were pretty awful as both sides struggled to take ownership of the game. Offaly looked to have done just that when Niall McNamee kicked a brace of points to put them 0-2 to 0-1 ahead, playing into a stiff wind, after 14 minutes. However, a fortuitous goal brought London back into the game and they added points to put them 1-4 to 0-2 in front. However, Offaly re-grouped and by half time were back on level terms 0-7 to 1-4.
With a strong breeze at their backs in the second half, Offaly dominated from the throw in and added eight points without reply to lead by 0-15 to 1-4 after 60 minutes. Both sides introduced the maximum number of subs in the remaining minutes as the games fizzled out and Offaly booked their place in the next round of the qualifiers.
Scorers for Offaly: N Dunne 0-7 (0-4f), N McNamee 0-4, B Allen 0-3 (0-2f), A Sullivan, N Bracken & N Darby 0-1 each.
Scorers for London: P O’Hara 1-1, M Gottsche (f), L Gavaghan, A Moyles (f), S Conroy (f), E Mageean & D Molloy 0-1 each.
Offaly: A Mulhall; B Darby, E Rigney, S Pender; N Darby, P Cunningham, J O’Connor; E Carroll, G Guilfoyle; J Moloney, A Sullivan, M Brazil; N Dunne, B Allen, N McNamee. Subs: N Bracken for Moloney (44), J Gethings for Guilfoyle (53), W Mulhall for McNamee (58), J Lalor for B Darby (61), K Garry for A Mulhall (64), L Fox for Carroll (67).
London: G McEvoy; D Ryan, C Carty, P Butler; D McGreevy, C Healy, C Coyne; J Moran, M Gottsche; C Dunne, C Óg Greene, L Gavaghan; A Moyles, P O’Hara, S Conroy. Subs: E Murray for Moran (49), K Butler for Coyne (52), C Dunne for Healy (61), E Mageean for Greene (62), C O’Neill for Ryan (64), D Molloy for O’Hara (67).
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).
