Maughan’s Offaly are back in high society again after a perfect run as Wicklow stun Cavan
OFFALY ARE BACK in football’s upper echelons following a five-point win over Fermanagh in O’Connor Park last night.
John Maughan’s men held out to win this Division Three semi-final and so complete a perfect run through this year’s League: four games played, four won, following this 1-14 to 0-12 victory.
The upshot is a return to the top two divisions for the first time since 2006. The league format has been regularly altered over the years, but Offaly have not been in an eight-team Division Two since 1985; they were relegated from Division 1A 15 years ago.
Under the veteran Maughan, they have consistently improved over the past two seasons, and their progress has now found tangible reward.
They were deserving winners here, too, leading by six points at half-time, 0-10 to 0-4.
Fermanagh’s lacklustre challenge was undermined when their captain, Eoin Donnelly, was sent off just before the break. They got back to within two points but a late Offaly goal, via Mark Abbott, eased them to the victory.
Wicklow stunned Cavan with a two-point win in the teams’ Division Three
relegation play-off match in Navan yesterday afternoon.
The game ended 3-11 to 0-18 in Wicklow’s favour, and while the result may not reverberate around the game, it was nonetheless a remarkable reversal of fortunes for the vanquished side.
Cavan were one of the feelgood stories of last year’s winter championship, their shock Ulster title both a major twist in the predicted plot, but also a return to the top table for one of the most decorated names in the history of the game.
They are figuring with an altogether different reality today, after three successive relegations ends with them in Division Four for next season.
In the medium term, it
raises the possibility of the 2020 Ulster champions having to play in the B championship, otherwise known as the Tailteann Cup, next season, unless they reach the Ulster final.
But in the short term, the result is a significant upset in its own right and Wicklow’s victory was fully deserved.
They have noticeably improved under Davy Burke, who guided them out of Division Four a year ago, and 2-3 from Seánie Furlong was critical to this two-point win. ‘We had to stay here, we had to,’ said Burke of an outcome that keeps Wicklow in the third tier against expectations.
‘Going back down to Division Four, how do you get out of there again? We just had to stay here.’
The yearning in Burke’s words was reflected in his team’s performance, which is all the more remarkable given the fact that they lost their three regulation matches in Division Three South, while Cavan had managed one win in Division Three North.
Wicklow delivered when it mattered, however.
Cork did likewise, but they had to scrap for a 3-22 to 0-25 win over Westmeath in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in a Division Two relegation play-off.
Westmeath led by two points at the interval, 0-14 to 0-12, and it took goals from Mark Collins, Luke
Connolly and Brian Hurley to eventually finish the visitors’ resistance.
It was an unimpressive spring for Cork, after the controversy of January when they were found in breach of training regulations, but retaining their Division Two status was significant.
And manager Ronan McCarthy will find a positive in the finishing power of his forwards, with Connolly and Hurley two of the frontmen he will expect to lead their challenge in the Munster championship.