A pointed free from Bernard Allen in the 70th minute earned Offaly a share of the spoils against a depleted Longford side in Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.
Longford lost Pauric Gill in the warm-up and then ace forward Robbie Smyth had to go off injured. The free from Allen came after Longford tried to keep the ball and ‘keeper Paddy Collum was penalised for over carrying.
Played in wet and miserable conditions, the swirling wind didn’t help either side. For all their possession in the opening half Longford just led by a goal at the break: 1-03 to 0-03.
Within the first minute of the game Robbie Smyth forced Offaly keeper Paddy Dunican into making a fine save. Smyth had been fouled in the build-up and a free was awarded which Darren Gallagher. Nigel Rabbitt then followed up with a fine point.
Offaly’s opening score came from a Bernard Allen free after he was fouled in the 12th minute. One minute later Longford stretched their lead to four points when Liam Connerton passed to Gallagher he found the back of the net.
Anton Sullivan got Offaly’s second point in the 14th minute. Points were traded between Mark Hughes and Allen (free) and that was the scoring finished in the 18th minute.
Longford should’ve added to their score but squandered chances. In the 31st minute Dunican denied Smyth from getting a second goal for Longford while down the other end Gallagher caught Allen’s free on the line.
Offaly started the second half brightly with two quickfire points from Allen cut the gap to just one in the 37th minute. Allen then set up sub Shane Tierney in the 39th minute to draw his side level.
Michael Quinn edged Longford ahead with a terrific point in the 40th minute and then three minutes his midfield partner Gallagher scored one just as good. Sullivan and Gallagher exchanged free as the game entered the final five minutes.
An excellent point from Eoin Carroll cut the lead to one point in the 65th minute. Longford should’ve extended their lead but failed to and then at the end Allen earned his sde a hard earned point.
Longford: P Collum; D Quinn, A Farrell, B O’Farrell; CP. Smyth; B McKeon, D Mimnagh; D Gallagher (1-3,2frees, M Quinn (01); S Donohoe, N Rabbitt (0-1), M Hughes (0-1); R Smyth, L Connerton, P Lynn.
Subs: J Hagan for R Smyth inj (44), C Berry for Hughes (60), I O’Sullivan for Lynn (70+1)
Offaly: P Dunican; D Hogan, E Rigney, D Dempsey; J O’Connor, P Cunningham, C Donohoe; C Mangan, S Horan; N Bracken, A Sullivan (0-2), N Darby; B Allen (0-5,three frees), J Moloney, R McNamee.
Subs: S Tierney (0-1) for McNamee (h-t), E Carroll (0-1) for Bracken (47), N Dunne for Moloney (54), C Carroll for Cunningham (68)
Referee: E O’Grady (Leitrim)
Sligo suffered a second successive defeat in agonising circumstances at their temporary home of Collooney as former AFL recruit Caolan Mooney snatched a dramatic winning goal for Down five minutes into injury-time.
The hosts, seeking to bounce back from their dismal loss in Carlow last weekend, started brightly with Pat Hughes firing over a quick point and then a goal as Paul Taylor's team took a 1-02 to 0-00.
However, Down staunched the bleeding and pulled themselves back into it, with Donal O'Hare and Mooney to the fore. By half-time, the gap was two points with Sligo leading 1-05 to 0-06.
Down enjoyed the best of the third quarter with Liam Gaughan registering the home side's only score for the first 20 minutes of the second period. Not that Down were raining over points themselves but nudge ahead for the first time through Mooney on 54 points.
It remained nip and tuck for the next 20 minutes and it was essentially a question of who was in front when the music stopped. That looked set to be Sligo after two points in two minutes on the stroke of full-time, the first a free from Niall Murphy and the second through Sean Carrabine, gave them a 1-10 to 0-12.
But there was a nasty sting in the tail for the westerners as Mooney was on hand to complete a sweeping move and give Down the most dramatic of victories, a first of Paddy Tally's reign as manager.
