JANUARY BLUES THE IDEAL PREP Offaly boss delighted with his debut win and relishing trip to capital for pre-season O’byrne battle
NEW Offaly manager Stephen Wallace is keen for a shot at the Dubs after his young side brushed Wexford aside on Saturday.
The Kerry native’s reign got off to the perfect start on Saturday as Offaly coasted to a 16-point victory in the Bord Na Mona O’byrne Cup in Tullamore and another win against Dublin on Wednesday night would guarantee a semi-final spot.
Last year Dublin won the O’byrne Cup with a vastly understrength squad managed by Paul Clarke, who will also oversee their participation in this year’s competition.
Wallace (below) said: “It’s brilliant for these young fellas to be going up playing the All-ireland champions albeit it’s maybe their second string team or whatever but, look, it’s Parnell Park under lights. Parnell Park under lights is always special.
“There’ll be a big Dublin crowd there for the first outing since winning the Allireland. It’ll be a big test but that’s where every young Offaly footballer should aspire to be.
“Go up and play the All-ireland champions and test yourself and see where you’re at. If we beat Dublin, we beat them but I’m not expecting to win the O’byrne Cup.
“We’re expecting to use it to develop players, take a look at what we have and you’re up for the League. If you get out of the group, great. We’re gearing up for the League. We’ve got two good games.
“We’ll have another good test against Dublin on Wednesday night. Those two games will stand to us and if we’ve to go back into training then after that so be it and we’ll gear up for Longford.
“Right now we’re looking at Dublin Wednesday night what will be, will be after that. If we don’t come out of the group our focus turns to Longford here on the 28th in Tullamore, first round and look, that’ll be a big test for us as well.”
Offaly effectively took care of business in a 10-minute period in the first half on Saturday in which they struck three goals, each of them coming from debutants Jordan Hayes and Cian Johnson.
Hayes hit the first goal in the 13th minute and Johnson finished superbly from a tight angle eight minutes later before Hayes pounced for his second as he swept in a rebound after Matt Doyle saved from Bernard Allen, who impressed with 0-6.
Having led 3-5 to 0-5 at half-time, Offaly didn’t threaten goals to the same degree in the second half but slotted a stream of points, four of them from Sean Doyle, to run out easy winners against fellow Division Three opposition.
The performance of 18-year-old Johnson was particularly encouraging and the Ferbane starlet is earmarked for a bright future though Wallace was keen to place the expectations surrounding him in perspective.
“Cian Johnson is far from the finished product,” he insisted. “He’s a very good young fella. His skills are getting better, he’s getting stronger. The stark realisation is that Cian Johnson puts on a school uniform on Monday and goes to school and he’s playing senior intercounty football.
“We have to be careful the pressure we put on him. We put him in there today, let’s see what he can do and, look, he didn’t disappoint. He’s definitely one for the future and I’m delighted that he’s in with us.”