Offaly should have enough to beat Wicklow in basement battle

By Kevin Egan

Once the final whistle sounded in Belfast to confirm Offaly’s second defeat in this year’s Allianz Football League, a relegation battle looked inevitable.

Even if Declan Kelly’s side had held on to take two points against Clare, a trip to Newry was always going to be a tough ask of the team, so this Sunday’s battle with Wicklow at Glenisk O’Connor Park (2pm) suddenly developed immense importance. Win, and it’s almost certain that Offaly will go into week seven with their fate in their own hands. Lose, and salvation could already be off the table by the time Limerick come to town.

It's fair to assume that there will have been plenty of tension and frustration on the training ground this week. On the face of things, a 4-12 to 2-14 defeat to Down is of little use in terms of the result, but it was a decent performance, and it’s a lot easier to build on something like that, than the first couple of weeks where Offaly scored 0-10 and 1-7.

We’ve seen players dropped, players temporarily leave the panel, and players react angrily to being substituted, all of which makes for a combustible atmosphere in the dressing room, but if that energy can be harnessed, it might be no bad thing.

Particularly in the forward division, it’s not unfair to say that Offaly started this year with no shortage of players who have plenty of potential and talent, but few – if any – that fall into the category of ‘automatic’ selection on the team. Somewhere in there is a group of eight or nine forwards where maybe three will play for 70 minutes and the others will all have starting or finishing roles, and that can cause real problems for opposition defences, if they get on the same page.

If they do, it’s not being over-confident to say that Offaly should be better than Wicklow this Sunday. The Garden County have also played Westmeath, Clare and Down this year, and have been far less competitive in each of those three games than Offaly were against the same opponents, while the loss of Mark Jackson (goalkeeper) to the NFL overseas programme has left Oisín McConville without a player that has been a real difference maker, something of an X-factor in recent years.

Kevin Quinn is a consistent scorer up front and Offaly would feel a lot better about their chances if Declan Hogan was available to marshal the threat of the DCU forward, but even so, this is a contest where a ‘seven out of ten’ or above display should be enough.

The problem is that based on the palpable tension and angst within the group, a misfire is possible too. All will be revealed on Sunday afternoon.