Offaly bow out as Longford U20s advance in lively contest

Longford 3-13 Offaly 1-17

By Kevin Egan

Dismal weather conditions in Newtownforbes didn’t prevent Longford and Offaly from producing a wonderful sporting contest in the Leinster U-20 championship on Wednesday night. But in the battle between the last two sides to win the Leinster minor title, it was Longford who prevailed, more due to their slightly lower error count than for any other single reason.

The bounce of the ball becomes more important than ever on a night like this and there were just too many instances in this game where that bounce went Longford’s way. Two in particular stand out.

The first was for Longford’s second goal, 20 minutes into the first half. A meek shot by Jamie Dorr dropped short and was gathered by Jack Ryan, but an initial fumble allowed Longford to apply pressure on the Offaly goalkeeper. It looked as if there was a faint pull on his arm as he tried to get his handpass away and whether it was that infringement or just a mistake with the pass, the Doon man played the ball straight to Cormac Flynn, who floated a shot over the stranded goalkeeper and into the empty net.

The second moment was late in the game, with Longford a point up. A tired stray Offaly arm clipped the Longford player in possession and with advantage on his side, Cormac Flynn could afford to send a ‘hit and hope’ high ball into the Offaly square. Paddy Mollaghan fielded the ball, turned and squeezed his shot inside the near post, and Offaly needed to reply in kind to have a chance.

In general, Offaly did a lot right in this game, played at Allen Park, home ground of Clonguish GAA. But the same sloppy, misplaced passes that yielded a lot of scoring chances against Wicklow the week before – albeit Wicklow largely wasted them – were a feature of this game too, even if there was always a sense that Offaly might win despite this.

After conceding the opening score – a two-pointer from Cormac Flynn – Offaly’s reply was excellent. Jack Maher, Jake Maher and Christian McKeon all made strong runs out of defence to initiate attacks, Cian McNamee and Dylan Dunne were very lively up front, while Charlie Duffy charged forward to join McNamee, Kaelum Bryan and Jack Ryan in a run of five consecutive points. Jack Maher also got on the scoresheet, though the full-back’s score was more of a goal chance missed, as he had just the keeper to beat but went straight at him.

Hesitant defending allowed Max Gallagher to drive in along the left-hand end line and level the game in one fell swoop with Jamie Dorr following up with a point, but a superb goal from Dylan put Offaly back on the front foot.

That was until Cormac Flynn floated in his goal, and Longford briefly led by three points approaching half-time. They could have had another goal too, but for a wonderful double save from Jack Ryan to deny James Hagan.

Two Offaly scores before the break and an Eoin Rouse equaliser immediately after it levelled the tie again and for most of the second half, that was how it continued. One side would take the lead, the other would level, and the sense that these were two evenly matched sides was strong.

Still, Offaly had a few more missed opportunities that would haunt them. Cian McNamee was in possession with the Longford defence backing off, and instead of reading that Longford were giving up the point to save the goal, he tried to thread through a handpass that wasn’t really on.

Kaelum Bryan had a couple of shots from distance that never looked like getting there, and then there was Dunne’s chance, fired at the feet of Egan in the Longford goal.

If that was all, then Offaly might still have survived. Instead Longford got their free hit, Paddy Mollahan made it count, and a trademark Jack Ryan free at the end from just outside the arc wasn’t enough to salvage the season for Roger Ryan’s side.

Longford now advance to the semi-finals alongside Louth, Meath and Kildare or Westmeath.

Man of the match: It would probably be a little bit of home newspaper decision to give it to anyone other than Luke Donnelly, though both Charlie Duffy and Jack Maher were superb in central roles for Offaly and were probably every bit as good as the lively Longford sharpshooter. Mark Cooney and Cormac Flynn were other Longford players to impress on the evening, while Dylan Dunne, Christian McKeon and Colm Egan all put in very solid shifts for Offaly.

Scorers - Longford: C Flynn 1-3 (1tp); P Mollahan 1-1 (0-1f); L Donnelly 0-4 (1tp); M Gallagher 1-0; P Farrell, J Dorr, J Hagan, K Baskett and C O’Donnell (f) 0-1 each. Offaly: D Dunne 1-1; J Ryan (1tpf, 1f, 1 45) and K Bryan (3f) 0-4 each; C McNamee 0-3; Jack Maher, C McKeon, C Duffy, E Rouse and C Egan 0-1 each.

Longford - Darragh Egan; Seán Egan, Ronan Burke, Mark Cooney; Conor McHugh, Colin Gilna, Alan Mimnagh; William McEntire, Max Gallagher; Peter Farrell, Jamie Dorr, Luke Donnelly; James Hagan, Paddy Mollaghan, Cormac Flynn. Subs: Seán Fagan for McEntire (38 mins), Kevin Baskett for Farrell (51), Cian O’Donnell for Gallagher (55), Daniel Galvin for Mollaghan (59).

Offaly - Jack Ryan; Tomás Carroll, Jack Maher, Patrick Kenna; Jake Maher, Christian McKeon, Harry Goulding; Charlie Duffy, Eoin Rouse; Cillian Foran, Dylan Dunne, Colm Egan; Ruairí Woods, Cian McNamee, Kaelum Bryan. Subs: Eoin Dunne for Carroll (half-time), Eoghan Cullen for Foran (41 mins), Dara Cuddihy for Woods (55), Aaron Molloy for Egan (58).

Referee - Alan Coyne (Westmeath).