Carlow defeat comes back to haunt Louth
Offaly Louth 2-16 1-7
AN agonising bank holiday defeat to Carlow came back to haunt Louth as Offaly powered to another routine win in Group 3 of the Leinster U-20 Championship on Sunday morning.
A 12-point victory over Carlow had already guaranteed the Faithful County a spot in the quarter-finals and they underlined their class with the exact same winning margin at O’Connor Park.
This was a big ask for Louth in many respects.
That two-point defeat to Carlow suggested they would be heavy underdogs going to Tullamore, but a late postponement due to a clash with the funeral of tragic Dundalk Gaels’ player Conor Morgan, and Offaly’s subsequent refusal to play at any other time than 11am the following morning, really put Wayne Kierans’ team on the back foot.
It seemed like pretty poor form on behalf of the hosts.
It would have taken an eightpoint win for Louth to deny them top spot in the group, so you would have to wonder if a 1.00 or 2.00pm start would have been such a hardship for Declan Kelly’s side.
As it turned out they showed Louth about as much mercy on the pitch as they did sportsmanship off it.
It took them just 15 seconds to open the scoring and they netted their first goal five minutes later.
But it was an explosive second quarter that blew Louth away as the home side plundered 2-6 without reply to lead by 14 points at the break, 2-10 to 0-2.
With the Louth attack feeding off scraps for most of the opening half, Sam Murloy and Eoin McDaid kept them in touch with a apiece early on, ensuring Conor Dunne’s superbly taken goal separated the teams at the end of the opening quarter.
But from that point on Offaly were utterly dominant, kicking five points in as many minutes before Cian Farrell slotted home from close range after Alan McGauley had denied the classy Cian Johnson from point blank range.
The same two players added a further point apiece before the interval to make it 2-10 to 0-2.
There would be no way back from there for the visitors, but they were a much improved force after the break, edging the second-half scoring by 1-5 to 0-6, missing one penalty and converting another. And all that despite finishing the game with 13 men as Fearghal Malone departed on two yellows and Cathal Grogan was black-carded after all six sub had been used.
They actually fell 16 points behind before discovering their scoring touch.
After bagging 1-8 against Carlow, Sam Mulroy was once again the main attacking threat and despite not travelling to London, he will surely be recalled to Pete McGrath’s senior panel for to the trip to Leitrim on Saturday night.
He kicked three points in a row before crashing a penalty off the crossbar, for which he made amends by slotting a second spot-kick past Barry Rohan on 55 minutes.
But, while the Naomh Mairtin man was able to show his undoubted quality at this level, Wayne Kierans wasn’t able to avail of the services of Emmet Carolan or Ross Nally as they played in the senior championship, and had Mulroy not missed most of the season through injury he too would likely have been ruled out.
In contrast Offaly operate a ‘local rule’ stipulating that the U-20 management get first dibs on players with dual senior and U20 status.
It’s a very grey area for the new U-20 grade going forward, while the timing of the competition will also continue to be a bone of contention for senior and under-20 managers alike. But that won’t be an issue for Peter McGrath or Wayne Kierans for the remainder of the 2018 season.
The latter will have been encouraged by his team’s second-half display, but after managing the vast majority of this squad at minor level over the past two years, he will feel that overall the campaign has been a disappointment. OFFALY: Barry Rohan; Ronan Hynes, Pa Robillard, Aidan Bracken; Jack Quinn, Stefan Geoghegan, Jack O’Brien; Kyle McDermott 0-1, Conor Dunne 1-0, Dan Wyer 0-3; Cian Johnson 0-4, Cian Farrell 1-6 (5f), Jack Darcy 0-2. Subs: Andrew Delaney for K Higgins (36), Robin Galbraith for K McDermott (49), Michael Wren for A Bracken (51), Brian Carroll for J Quinn (53), Shane O’Brien for C Johnson (53), Seamus O’Brien for J O’Brien (56),
LOUTH: Alan McGauley; Alan Connor, Dan Corcoran, Jamie Kelly; Conor Morgan, Eimhin Keenan, Leonard Grey; Liam Jackson, Ferghal Malone; Eoin McDaid 0-1, Sean Marry, Gerry Garland; Ciaran Keenan, Sam Mulroy 1-5 (1-0 pen, 3f), Cian Callan. Subs: Cathal Grogan for C Morgan (ht), John Gallagher 0-1 for S Marry (38), James O’Reilly for C Callan (43), M Lugoye for G Garland (46), Conor Whelan for J Kelly (51), David Anderson for E McDaid (51).
REFEREE: Brendan Cawley (Kildare)