Six year wait for silverware over but Fahy is far from happy

HARD to imagine the Offaly players going wild with delight last night after this one.

Some observers said during the week that the miniscule trophy on offer to the Division Two winners belittles the competition. What must they be saying after the match itself?

Gerry Fahy could have been forgiven for ignoring the poor fare and focusing instead on the fact that, six months into his role as Offaly manager, he had ended a six-year wait for silverware.

No. Gerry was determined to call it as he saw it. “I’m particularly pleased that we’ve won the match, but I wouldn’t be at all happy with the performance there today,” Fahy said afterwards. “We set very high standards for ourselves and I still keep going back to the fact that we didn’t play a little bit better. Hopefully, we have time now to improve.”

Three weeks to be exact. That’s how long they have before they make the return trip to Dublin’s north inner-city when they take on Westmeath in their Leinster championship opener.

For Fahy, yesterday’s run-out will have been the perfect opportunity for his young players to get the feel of the stadium. More than one of the players on both sides got a closer inspection than they would have liked as they struggled to keep their feet on the unfamiliar surface.

“Guys were having to try and keep their feet, they seemed to have a hell of a job to try and do that. That’s just choice of studs but you’ll have that when fellas haven’t played on the surface,” he said.

As for the game itself? “I would say that it was just the nerves and tensions of both teams,” said Fahy. “They’re both still young teams and they lack experience in Croke Park. Both teams will benefit from it and prosper now as a result of it.”

Lucky for Offaly too that it wasn’t a more experienced side than Down they encountered. On another day they would have been dead and buried by the time the oranges were passed round.

“We thought at half-time we were doing well to be level because they had missed a good few chances and it was a great plus for us going in at half-time that we were level,” he admitted. “We really hadn’t played yet and we knew that if we settled down a bit and lost our inhibition we might have a chance. The goal was a great boost to us though.”

Fahy’s counterpart Paddy O’Rourke also played the youth card afterwards but he refused to take the easy option and play up the effect of Sean Ward’s early demise.

“You have to be disappointed when you lose a game of football and we’re disappointed. No question about that,” O’Rourke said. Losing a man so early in the game was disappointing. Sean is a good captain and a good footballer.

“That’s not why we lost the game though. We still had chances to win it and didn’t take them. I felt we were a bit nervous to be in Croke Park for the first time. It’s good to get that out of our system.”

With only 1-2 coming from play, Down need to spruce up in front of goal. Goals have been thick on the ground from this team but when the green flag doesn’t go up, they fail to compensate with one-pointers. It’s been a problem for two years and doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

“We went looking for a goal when a point or two would have gotten us a point or two closer,” O’Rourke said. “Our inside forwards looked dangerous and looked like they were going to get scores but it just didn’t happen. Hopefully we can make it happen in a fortnight’s time.”

Cavan are their opponents then and they’ll certainly have slept better in the border county last night after this.