Offaly are out of Division 4 after a hard-fought spring campaign but more importantly, according to manager Pat Flanagan, they did it the “Offaly way”.
It was the Faithful County’s second promotion in three seasons and came off the back of five wins, a draw and just one loss along the way.
Describing the escape from the bottom rung as “brilliant”, Flanagan was eager to point out the manner of the team’s performances, including salvaging points from tough games against Leitrim and Carlow.
Speaking to Midlands Sport, he said: “When we went behind against Leitrim after being eight points up it could have been very easy to go away in that game.
“When we went three points down against Carlow, we came back and we out-scored them five points to one in the last seven or eight minutes and I think it’s a huge testament to this Offaly team that, and I said it to the lads in there, we won the games the Offaly way.
“We dug deep, and that’s a testament to the mental side of things as well as the fitness side of things.”
“We set out our stall at the start of the year to win promotion and I think we did it the hard way"
Having seen Offaly relegated from Division 3 last season, Flanagan, who took over from Emmet McDonnell in October, was able to tick box number one by winning promotion at the first attempt.
The second item on the list is to win their first Leinster Championship game since 2007.
That chance will come against midlands rivals Longford, who knocked Offaly out of the province last year and also inflicted their only defeat of this year’s league – in a match where Offaly had three players sent off.
And before the championship meeting in Tullamore on 16 May, comes the Division 4 final in Croke Park in three weeks’ time.
“It great to have that opportunity, we felt a bit hard done by down in Longford last week so we’ve a huge opportunity to put it right,” said Flanagan.
“We set out our stall at the start of the year to win promotion and I think we did it the hard way. It wasn’t easy, it may not have been easy on the eye, even [against Antrim].
“There was a lot of nerves in there. All we wanted to do was get across the line and eventually we showed our quality in the end.
“It’s brilliant, brilliant to get out of that division. It’s great just to win and have success and hopefully we can push on from here. We don’t want to get out of Division 4 and say ‘that’s it for the year’.
"We’ll be aiming to do very well in the course of the next few months.”
