Croke Park Beckons As Offaly Defeat New York
Tailteann Cup Quarter-Final
Offaly 3-17 New York 0-11
By Brian Lowry at O’Connor Park (from gaa.ie website)
Offaly booked their place in the semi finals of the Tailteann Cup in two weeks time after they comfortably navigated their way past New York in Tullamore on Saturday.
The men from the Big Apple were only five points adrift of Offaly with five minutes to go in the opening half, but 1-3 for the home side in the final five minutes of the half all but sealed the result at the break.
Jack Bryant and Jack Reilly exchanged scores inside the opening six minutes but Offaly soon took control of the game and with their hard running causing trouble, the New York were drawn into coughing up frees.
The home side led 1-5 to 0-1 after 19 minutes with Niall McNamee guided over four frees while Keith O’Neill showed quick thinking to palm a cross field ball to the net on 11 minutes.
John Maughan’s men had a strong wind behind them but they were pegged back over the next 10 minutes as New York came more into the game with Johnny Glynn and Adrian Varley both proving a handful. Jack Reilly kicked two more scores for the New York men and Offaly’s lead was cut to 1-7 to 0-5 after 30 minutes.
Offaly finished the half strong however with Rhode club men Niall Darby and Ruairi McNamee kicking three points between them.
At 1-10 to 0-5 coming to the half time whistle, New York were not without hope in the second half but with almost the last play of the half, Jack Bryant cut the New York defence wide open, fed Anton Sullivan and the Rhode man made no mistake in finding the net to leave Offaly cruising 2-10 to 0-5 at the break.
Any comeback was put to bed by Offaly landing the opening four points of the second half with Ruairi McNamee landing the pick of those as New York through caution to wind and placed Johnny Glynn on the edge of the square.
Glynn didn’t get much change out of Johnny Moloney and while New York were having their fair share of possession, they didn’t pose the same scoring threat as the Offaly men.
Jack Bryant took the unselfish route to put Offaly’s third goal on a plate for Cathal Flynn in the 53rd minute before Bryant himself kicked his second of the day to put Offaly 3-16 to 0-8 clear with 15 minutes to go.
Two points from Adrian Varley was just rewards for New York who kept plugging away but Offaly had the final say of the game with substitute Jack McEvoy fisting over to confirm a 15 point win
Scorers for Offaly: Niall McNamee 0-6 (0-5f), Cathal Flynn 1-1 and Keith O’Neill 1-1 each, Anton Sullivan 1-0, Ruairi McNamee, Niall Darby (0-1f) and Jack Bryant 0-2 each, Jack McEvoy, Paddy Dunican (free) and Johnny Moloney 0-1 each.
Scorers for New York: Adrian Varley 0-4 (0-1m), Jack Reilly 0-4 (0-2f), Connell Aherne 0-2, Sean Reilly 0-1 (‘45’)
OFFALY: Paddy Dunican; Lee Pearson, Declan Hogan, Niall Darby; Rory Egan, Johnny Moloney, Cian Donohoe; Conor McNamee, Jordan Hayes; Bill Carroll, Ruairi McNamee, Anton Sullivan; Jack Bryant, Niall McNamee, Keith O’Neill.
Subs: Cathal Flynn for Bill Carroll (39), David Dempsey for Rory Egan (41), Morgan Tynan for Conor McNamee (44), Diarmuid Egan for Ruairi McNamee (59), Jack McEvoy for Keith O’Neill inj (62).
NEW YORK: Michael Cunningham; Colin Keane, Jamie Boyle, Alan Campbell; Shane Brosnan, Paddy Boyle, Dan O’Sullivan; Johnny Glynn, Adrian Varley; Peter Fox, Ger McCullagh, Tiernan Mathers; Sean Reilly, Jack Reilly, Mikey Brosnan.
Subs: Jamie Davis for Alan Campbell (ht), Adam Stones for Peter Fox (ht), Connell Aherne for Ger McCullagh (ht), Danny Corridan for Jack Reilly (61), Conor Mathers for Sean Reilly (61).
Referee: Martin McNally (Monaghan).
