Faithful collapse
OFFALY have been relegated to Division 2 of the National Hurling League after they let an 11-point half-time lead slip in O’Connor Park yesterday. Kevin Martin’s side were 1-11 to 0-3 up at the break, and also had a man advantage as Carlow full forward Edward Byrne saw red after just eight minutes. While Carlow really drove on with the wind behind them in the second period, Offaly imploded and ‘panicked’ according to manager Kevin Martin. ‘We have no one else to blame only ourselves really. We were 11 points up with the spare man and we should have done a lot better. ‘Again, we made some basic errors; communication wasn’t there the way it should be there and frankly, we just panicked.’ Carlow used the long ball in and around the danger area to great effect to ignite their comeback. Martin Kavanagh and Seamus Murphy both found the net in the opening six minutes after the restart. Offaly managed four more points in the closing 30 minutes but Carlow had the scoring aces in Kavanagh and Chris Nolan to help them to a famous win which guarantees Division 1 hurling next year. ‘The satisfaction at the end really showed through. Some of those players in the dressing room have hurled for the last eight, nine, 10 years, and if they had to go back down to Division 2…. They really set their stall out at the start of the year, that this was a goal that they had to achieve,’ Carlow boss Colm Bonnar said. ‘Even their talk at half-time, they just couldn’t fathom it, they couldn’t face into going back training next November if they had to go back down to Division 2. ‘Offaly have got a lot of bad press in the last number of years but they’re a hugely competitive team and they’re proud players who went out and wore that jersey. ‘We got the luck, but to answer the question, I’d consider it the biggest achievement so far.’