Offaly certainly won't be jumping through hoops after recording a routine win over London in Tullamore on Sunday afternoon.
A home victory was never under the slightest of threat but Offaly won't be one bit happy at falling asleep late on and conceding the last four points.
With the best three third placed teams qualifying out of each group, scoring difference could prove crucial in a few weeks time. Offaly will be hoping to qualify in the top two and play Laois next but they could pay a price for stopping playing a few minutes before the final whistle.
Cian Farrell's excellent 66nd minute goal had put Offaly thirteen points up, 2-14 to 0-7 and they should have been able to push on and win by more from here. Instead, they took their eye off the ball and London got through for late points from Joshua Obahor, Conal Gallagher (2) and Joseph McGill (free) to bring the deficit down to a very respectable nine points.
London will be quietly pleased with their afternoon's work as this was a game they just couldn't win and they looked very mediocre at times but they showed great desire and kept battling to the final whistle.
Offaly played with a strong wind in the first half and without doing anything special, they had the result in the bag early on. They got seven points without reply in the first eighteen minutes and a fine 20th minute goal from Cian Farrell put it out of London's reach.
Offaly were 1-8 to no score up when London got their first point from Obahor in the 29th minute. The exiles got two of the last three points to trail by 1-9 to 0-3 at the interval.
The second half was a non event as Offaly went through the motions and London had zero chance of retrieving the game. Offaly were particularly off the boil early on and London had the gap back to 1-10 to 0-5 after 52 minutes. Offaly got four out of five points in a more potent spell between the 52nd and 62nd minutes and Cian Farrell's goal set it up for them to pull away. Instead London finished powerfully and this will boost their confidence ahead of the visit of Cavan next weekend.
Offaly: Ian Duffy; Lee Pearson , Declan Hogan, David Dempsey; Jack O'Brien; Peter Cunningham, Ciaran Donnelly; Aaron Leavy, Jack McEvoy (0-1); Dylan Hyland (0-4 (1m and 1f, Ruari McNamee, Joe Maher; Cian Farrell (2-4, 1f), Nigel Dunne (0-3, 2f and 1m), Anton Sullivan (0-1).
Subs: Cian Donohoe for Dempsey, inj. (29m), Morgan Tynan for McNamee (49m), Cormac Delaney (0-1, f) for Dunne (56m), Nigel Bracken for Hyland (60m), Shane Tierney for Sullivan (63m).
London: Andrew Walsh; Conor O'Neill, Michael Clarke, Nathan McElwaine; Ronan Slone, Eoin Walsh, Aidan McLoughlin (0-2); Daniel Clarke, Joshua Obahor (0-2); Conal Gallagher (0-3), Stephen Dornan, Liam Gallagher (0-1); Christopher Farley, Liam Gavaghan (0-2, 1f), Cahir Healy.
Subs: Joseph McGill (0-1, 1f) for Farley (29m), Ryan Tohill for Dornan (34m), Fiontan Fitzgerald for McElwaine (44m), James Hynes for Clarke (56m), Henry Walsh for Gavaghan (59m).
Referee: David Murnane (Cork).
