Offaly continued their footballing renaissance when they recorded a very encouraging win over Tailteann Cup favourites Down in Tullamore on Saturday evening.
In an excellent, high-scoring game Offaly had to dig deep in the second half as Down hunted down a five-point deficit with the wind on their backs.
That deficit looked retrievable but a mixture of desperate Offaly defending and very poor misses from Down ensured that the Mourne men have to play a Round 2B winner next weekend. Following a first-round win over Clare, it is a great turnaround by Offaly who lost all seven Division 2 league games and flopped in the championship against Laois.
Caolan Mooney and Pat Havern missed great goal chances for Down in the 38th and 60th minutes, and they paid the price for these. Havern hit the cross bar from five metres as Down failed to score from the 58th minute.
They were only two points behind, 1-20 to 2-19 at that stage but Offaly scored the closing 1-03 to get a very good win. Man of the match Dylan Hyland scored a breathtaking two-pointer to put them four up in the 63rd minute and Diarmuid Egan put the game out of reach for Down with a 66th-minute goal. Another outstanding home player Jordan Hayes put the icing on the cake with a last-minute point.
Down got back into it quickly in the second half. They were on level terms, 1-18 to 2-15 after 48 minutes and dominating play. They were favourites at this stage but Offaly found a great new lease of life.
Hyland kicked four points, one of them a two-pointer as the winners grabbed a 2-19 to 1-18 lead with 57 minutes gone. Points from Eamon Brown and Pat Havern (free) kept Down in it but their attack floundered late on as Offaly found a way to win it.
There were loads of twists and turns in a very exciting first half that produced some great attacking play by both sides.
Playing with the wind, Offaly led by 2-13 to 1-11 but were disappointed to be only ahead by five. They led by double scores, 2-12 to 1-6 after 21 minutes but could only manage one further point from there to the break.
Offaly were 0-05 to 0-03 up when Down's Pearse McPollin struck the first goal in the ninth minute. It was all square, 1-04 to 0-07 when Dylan Hyland put Offaly ahead with a 15th-minute penalty after the raiding Cormac Egan was fouled. Keith O'Neill and Ronan Burns (free) exchanged two pointers before Offaly found their best form.
Jordan Hayes got his second two-pointer and Shane Tierney scored a goal and a point to give them that 2-12 to 1-6 lead. Down's second quarter was crucial for them as they began to win Offaly kickouts and scored five of the last six points to be right in it at the break.
Offaly: Conor Melia; Shane O'Toole-Greene, David Dempsey, Lee Pearson; Cormac Egan, Diarmuid Egan (1-00), Marcas Dalton; Jack McEvoy, Jordan Hayes (0-05, 2tp); Kyle Higgins, Keith O'Neill (0-03, 1tp), Aaron Leavy; Dylan Hyland (1-11, 1-00 penalty, 3tp, 2f), Shane Tierney (1-03), Nathan Poland.
Subs: Harry Plunkett for Poland (40 mins), Rory Egan for Higgins (54 mins), Daire McDaid for Dalton (56 mins), Jack Bryant for Tierney (56 mins), Cathal Ryan for Cormac Egan (62 mins)
Down: Ronan Burns (0-3, 1tpf, 1 '45'); Callum Rogers (0-01), Peter Fegan, Finn McElroy; Pierce Laverty, Pearse McPollin (1-00), Ryan Magill (0-01); Odhran Murdock,Tom Close (0-02); Miceal Rooney, Ceilum Doherty (0-02), Daniel Guinness (0-01); Caolan Mooney (0-01), Pat Havern (0-05, 1tp, 3f), Shane Annett (0-02)
Subs: Ruari McCormack for McPollin (ht), Patrick Brooks for McElroy (45 mins), John McGeogh (0-01) for Close (48 mins), Eamon Brown (0-01) for Rooney (52 mins), Barry O'Hagan for Magill (56 mins)
Referee: Conor Lane (Cork)
