Footballers Off To A Winning Start In League
Allianz Football League Division 3: Offaly 2-12, Antrim 0-12
Offaly got their Division 3 League campaign off to a winning start with an exciting victory over Antrim in Corrigan Park, Belfast.
The Faithful County played superbly in the first half and withstood some strong pressure from the home side before finishing strongly to pick up a crucial victory.
Offaly began brightly with the wind at their backs with early scores from Joe Maher and Dylan Hyland.
Antrim began to settle and enjoyed plenty of possession, but were being pressed well before getting into the scoring zone until Dominic McEnhill opened their account on six minutes.
The sides would swap scores but Antrim were starting to waste quite a few chances – a feature of their afternoon with a dozen wides overall – with shots either dropping shorty or tailing wide and Offaly were much more economical, rattling off four points on the spin – the pick coming from Anton Sullivan after they had turned over the hosts.
Offaly were putting pressure on the home kick-out and on 25 minutes this paid off as they won at midfield with Peter Cunningham breaking through the heart of the home defence and although held up close to goal, the ball broke for Ruairi McNamee to slot into the net.
A pair of Hyland frees extended the gap to nine, but Antrim finally ended a barren 20 minutes with Ryan Murray kicking a free and McEnhill another to narrow the gap as Offaly led 1-08 to 0-04 at the half.
The early exchanges of the second period saw the sides trade a pair of scores before Antrim had their first big goal chance after 43 minutes as a good move saw Creggan’s Ruairi McCann in on the left, but Ian Duffy saved brilliantly with his legs despite the hosts’ appeals for a foot block falling on deaf ears.
Dunne extended the Offaly advantage back to eight at the other end from a free, but then came the Antrim surge with McCann again with a change as he raced in, but his shot went high and waved wide despite protests it had gone over.
Antrim were now running at Offaly and getting joy as McCann fed his Aghagallon namesake to begin a run of four points on the spin to halve the deficit.
A goal is what Antrim needed and they had two massive chances with Odhran Eastwood denied at the near post by Duffy on 70 minutes and then seconds later, a move through the hands saw the ball squared with Patrick Finnegan just needing to palm home, but the ball was cleared off the line by Rory Egan.
They did get a point through Patrick McBride to leave a goal in it, but Antrim would be made to pay for their misses as Offaly again disrupted the home kick-out and a probing ball saw substitute Bernard Allen win the race to pop over Antrim goalkeeper Mick Byrne and into the net to seal the points for the Faithful.
OFFALY: Ian Duffy; Cian Donohoe, Declan Hogan, David Dempsey; Rory Egan, Peter Cunningham (0-01), Lee Pearson; Jack McEvoy, Conor McNamee; Joe Maher (0-01), Ruairi McNamee (1-01), Shane O’Toole-Greene; Nigel Dunne (0-02, both frees), Anton Sullivan (0-03), Declan Hyland (0-04, 2f)
Subs: Bernard Allen (1-00) for S O’Toole-Greene (HT), Cian Farrell for N Dunne (48), Luke Egan for J Maher (63), Jack Bryant for D Hyland (70+2), Aaron Brazil for C Donohoe (70+3)
ANTRIM: Mick Byrne; Peter Healy, Declan Lynch, James McAuley (0-01); Dermott McAleese, Joseph Finnegan, Marc Jordan; Jack Dowling, Conor Stewart (0-01); Patrick McBride (0-01), Ryan Murray (0-03f), Colum Duffin; Pat Shivers (0-01), Ruairi McCann (Creggan, 0-01), Dominic McEnhill (0-02, 1f)
Subs: Ruairi McCann (Aghagallon, 0-02) for D McEnhill (HT), Kevin Small for J Dowling (HT), Patrick Finnegan for C Duffin (49), Odhran Eastwood for R McCann (Creggan, 58), Pádraig Mervyn for J Finnegan (65).
REFEREE: Conor Dourneen (Cavan)
