Laois 0-23 Offaly 1-24
Offaly avenged last year’s opening round league defeat to Laois tonight when they overcame their neighbours by 1-24 to 0-23 in a rip roaring clash at O’Moore Park.
Shane Dooley was the dominant influence on the tie with 1-14, including four points from play; however, the result ultimately hinged on two second-half penalties for Laois, both taken by Zane Keenan and both saved on the Offaly goal-line.
Laois defender Tom Delaney was sent off with 20 minutes to play as his side trailed by five points.
However, Laois continued to press right up until the death, reducing the gap to two points on two occasions.
But they couldn’t find a way through to score the goal that they badly needed and were held off by the Faithful County, who tacked on late insurance scores through Paddy Murphy and Cillian Kiely.
Both sides produced some wonderful hurling in the first half and while they accumulated 15 wides between them, they also produced 25 scores, 0-14 of which were scored by Offaly.
Joe Bergin was a late addition to the Offaly team in place of his injured club colleague Tom Carroll.
And Bergin, along with Shane Dooley and Stephen Quirke in the full forward line, helped to win plenty of long deliveries despite the presence of a Laois sweeper, ensuring plenty of scoring chances and slower ball out of the Laois defence even when the sliothar didn’t stick first time.
Six points were shared equally between the sides in the first five minutes as Willie Hyland and Shane Kinsella matched each other with stunning strikes from out on the touchline.
Cha Dwyer posted the first of his six points from play and Neil Foyle found the target from underneath the stand to give Laois a two-point advantage, but Offaly then took control of the tie and between the 15th and the 30th minute, scoring ten points while conceding just two at the other end.
Paddy Murphy and Shane Kinsella chipped in with nice points but ultimately it was all about Shane Dooley’s incredible accuracy from frees, while the same player also came agonisingly close to registering the game’s first goal with a blistering strike on the turn that was touched over by Enda Rowland.
Laois regained a little momentum shortly before half-time with three scores in succession to make it 0-14 to 0-11.
However, that momentum was crushed immediately after the restart when Matthew Whelan clumsily bundled over Offaly captain Dan Currams and Dooley made Laois pay the price with a low free that was deflected en route to the net.
Seán Ryan and Shane Dooley scored in reply to a Zane Keenan free to stretch the lead to seven, but Laois continued to hurl with plenty of intensity.
Laois then pulled the gap back to four before sustaining another blow when Tom Delaney was shown a straight red card by Alan Kelly for a pull on a face guard with a quarter of the game still remaining.
Keenan promptly sent a point over the Offaly crossbar from out on the left wing that raised the volume in the stand by a few notches and with nine minutes to play, he was given his first close range dead ball opportunity when Niall Wynne was deemed to have pulled down Stephen Maher in the square.
Offaly were able to put three men on the line as the experimental pre-season rules were not continued into the league and corner back Stephen Egan was able to make a decisive intervention, touching the ball around the post for a ’65 that Keenan pointed.
Injury-time was looming when Kelly stretched his arms wide once again, this time for a foul on Willie Hyland, but Keenan’s second strike was uncharacteristically weak and was easily blocked by James Dempsey, no doubt reigniting the debate about the value of a penalty in hurling once again.
Laois continued to press but Offaly now felt that they were nearly home and once Cillian Kiely and Paddy Murphy tapped over late scores, they had the points in the bag and will feel very confident regarding their prospects in advance of next Sunday’s clash with Wexford at O’Connor Park.
LAOIS: E Rowland; B Stapleton, C Healy, JA Delaney; J Fitzpatrick, M Whelan, T Delaney; P Purcell (0-01), J Campion (0-01); C Dwyer (0-06), W Hyland (0-03), Z Keenan (0-10, 0-07f, 0-01 ‘65); T Fitzgerald, R King, N Foyle (0-02).
Subs: S Maher for Foyle (42), PJ Scully for Campion (52), D Palmer for Fitzgerald (55), B Conroy for King (65)
OFFALY: J Dempsey; N Wynne, D Shortt, S Egan; E Nolan, C Egan, D Mooney; S Ryan (0-02), P Camon; D Currams, S Kinsella (0-03), P Murphy (0-02); S Dooley (1-14, 1-10f), J Bergin (0-02), S Quirke.
Subs: C Kiely (0-01) for Camon (51), S Cleary for Kinsella (65), G Mann for Ryan (68), C Mulrooney for Murphy (70+1)
Referee: Alan Kelly (Galway)
