Winless Leitrim provided Offaly with something of a shock early on, but then the Faithful County side got their game back on track just before the interval when John Furlong finished to home side's net and put the visitors on the road to a hard-fought win.
Leitrim started brightly and probably surprised Offaly since they had suffered crushing defeats in all their previous league outings. Conor Quinn opened Leitrim's account when he split the Offaly posts in the first minute.
Over the next four minutes Paul Honeyman (free) and Riordan O'Rourke increased Leitrim lead with points apiece. Leitrim's upbeat performance continued with Paul Honeyman (free) and Ben Guckian whipping over points each by the ninth minute to put Leitrim 0-05 ahead with Offaly still to raise a flag.
Keith O'Neill opened Offaly's account when he put over a 10th minute free and seven minutes later Dylan Hyland reduced the deficit with Leitrim to two points when hit over another placed ball for the Faithful men.
Conor Quinn answered with Leitrim's last first half score when his 21st minute effort split the Offaly uprights. Offaly fought back to get on level terms over the next seven minutes with Kyle Higgins, Daire McDaid, Shane Tierney and Keith O'Neill all adding points on the trot.
A Cathal Flynn point near the break put Offaly ahead for the first time of the game and then John Furlong palmed to the Leitrim net just before the short whistle to put the visitors ahead by 1-07 to 0-06 at the interval.
In the opening 25 minutes of the second half Offaly increased their advantage over Leitrim to 1-11 to 0-09 after Marcus Dalton, Paddy Dunican, Nigel Dunne and Jack Bryant fired over for them.
A well-worked Leitrim 61st minute goal which Darren Cox finished to the Offaly net cut the visitor's advantage to two points.
But after that the Faithful County managed to hold out for a relieved victory with points from goalkeeper Paddy Dunican and Keith O'Neill (free).
Leitrim: Daire O'Shea; Eoin McLoughlin, Kieran Clancy, Eanna McNamara; Jack Foley, Mark Diffley, James Rooney; Keith Keegan 0-01, Conor Quinn 0-02; Jack Flynn; Ben Guckian 0-01, Paul Honeyman 0-04 4f; Riordan O'Rourke 0-01, Darren Co 1-00, Tom Prior.
Subs: Sean Harkin for Foley (55); Cillian McGloin for Rooney (61); Stephen McLoughlin & Mark Keegan for Keith Keegan & Quinn (69).
Offaly: Paddy Dunican 0-02 45; Lee Pearson, Aiden Bracken, Rory Egan; Daire McDaid 0-01, John Furlong 1-00, Cormac Egan; Jack McEvoy, Jordan Hayes; Kyle Higgins 0-01, Cathal Flynn 0-01, Keith O'Neill 0-03 2f; Dylan Hyland 0-01f , Aaron Kelleghan, Shane Tierney 0-01.
Subs: Jack Bryant 0-01 and Marcus Dalton 0-01 for Kelleghan & Hyland (HT); Nigel Dunne 0-01 for Tierney (50); Morgan Tynan for McEvoy (56).
Referee: Alan Coyne (Westmeath).
