Offaly danced with disaster before retaining their Division 3 status in Tullamore on Sunday afternoon.
A much improved second-half display saw them beat relegated Limerick by 1-10 to 0-12 but they sailed close to the wind and were not far from suffering a devastating defeat – Antrim's win over Wicklow in Belfast would have kept Offaly up in any event but they didn't know that and they were on thin ice for long periods of this game.
Wins for Limerick and Wicklow would have put Offaly down and they were certainly in danger of that after a very poor first half display. Playing their best football of the league, Limerick were the better team and deserved their 0-06 to 0-04 half time lead with three of their points coming from James Naughton frees while their best player Cathal Downes got two.
Offaly could get nothing going in the first half. Their error count was way too high, they gave the ball away cheaply, fouled too much and missed scoreable chances.
They played with much more method in the second half, quickly getting on top and levelling it up with points from a Keith O'Neill mark and Dylan Hyland. A very fortunate 41st minute goal from Cathal Flynn after Limerick goalkeeper Josh Ryan gave it away in the danger zone gave Offaly a 1-06 to 0-06 lead.
Limerick rallied very well and points from Peter Nash, Shane Costelloe and James Naughton levelled it up four minutes later. Fine points from Anton Sullivan and Dylan Hyland gave Offaly back the initiative and they were 1-10 to 0-10 ahead with four minutes left.
Despite Robbie Childs getting a 64th minute black card, Limerick got back into it with points from Barry Coleman and Diarmuid Kelly (free) – Offaly should have sealed it when John Furlong missed a great goal chance in the 63rd minute, Paul Maher getting back to make the save.
The game disintergated late on as tempers became frayed and it all became very scrappy and disjointed.
Offaly ended up with 13 when Dylan Hyland and Nigel Dunne were sent off well into injury time. While Hyland seemed to have been shown a straight red, Offaly believe that it was a black to go with his earlier yellow while Dunne got a straight red after getting into a fracas with a couple of Limerick players.
Hyland has had his share of discipline problems in the past two years – he got two red cards in the qualifier defeat by Cavan last year while he got a yellow and black earlier in the league this season but he was brilliant here, the man of the match with a super five points from play as Offaly did just enough to win.
Offaly: Ian Duffy; David Dempsey, John Furlong (0-01), Lee Pearson; Cormac Egan, Declan Hogan, Peter Cunningham; Eoin Carroll, Jack McEvoy; Dylan Hyland (0-05), Ruari McNamee, Jordan Hayes; Cathal Flynn (1-00), Jack Bryant (0-01 f), Keith O'Neill (0-01, m). Subs: Anton Sullivan (0-01) for McNamee (40m), Nigel Dunne for Bryant (46m), Nathan Poland (0-01, m) for Hayes (50m), Jack O'Brien for Pearson (62m), Kevin McDermott for Sullivan, inj. ( 67m),
Limerick: Josh Ryan; Darren O'Doherty, Sean O'Dea, Brian O'Sullivan; Barry Coleman (0-01), Iain Corbett, Paul Maher; Tommy Childs, Cillian Fahy; Robbie Childs (0-01), Cathal Downes (0-03), James Naughton (0-04, 4f); Jamie Baynham, Danny Neville, Bryan Nix. Subs: Peter Nash (0-01) for Baynham (35m +2), Shane Costelloe (0-01) for Corbett (HT), Diarmuid Kelly (0-01, f) for Nix (60m),
Referee: John Gilmartin (Sligo).
