Kilmurray goes home smiling as Offaly frustrate Cork

Offaly 0-12 Cork 1-05

While home manager Kevin Kilmurray was enjoying "having the smile back on his face" after the O'Byrne Cup final defeat, Cork boss, Billy Morgan had no hesitation in admitting to a "terribly frustrating" day.

It was that kind of a game. Offaly made the early running and never quite lost control, aided by a series of unforced Cork errors and unimaginative forward play. In mitigation, Morgan's team could argue that they were twice out of luck with goal chances in the opening minutes of the second half.

But in truth it's debatable if even one of them could have saved their blushes at the finish.

"We had a strong week's training before we played Meath and I didn't want to say too much about it at the time,'' said Kilmurray. "Fair play to these young lads. I was pleased with the way they played for one another. It was a great team performance.''

Cork were without their Nemo Rangers contingent and the injured John Hayes.

They lost Nicholas Murphy early in the second half and he is considered doubtful for Saturday night's game with Kerry along with Anthony Lynch who hurt his shoulder but played on in obvious difficulty.

Morgan said: "There was no pattern to our play whatsoever. It was like a bunch of fellows playing together for the first time. I don't know what happened. The way we played the previous week against Kerry, we tried to play the same way today and I thought it would be easy. But, it wasn't. We were too laboured coming forward and too slow with ball coming in.''

Offaly's more sensible play, which owed as much to good teamwork as hard graft and alertness, had them four points clear inside 17 minutes. John Reynolds regularly made headway on the right wing and the experienced Pascal Kellaghan at full-forward was heavily involved in the play.

Cork, by comparison, struggled. Hard-won possession was given away through sloppy passing and the full-forward trio were in difficulty. On the positive side, midfielder Dermot Hurley fielded some great ball, right half-forward Fintan Gould worked tirelessly (as did Noel O'Leary behind him) and centre-back Ger Spillane was dealing comfortably with Ciaran McManus.

Overall, however, Offaly had the capacity to create more scoring chances and this meant that they were more comfortable on the ball all over the field.

At the break they led 0-7 to 0-2.

Immediately after the resumption, an opening made by substitute Robert O'Mahony saw Gould hit in a good shot which experienced keeper Padraic Kelly did well to stop. Seven minutes later, Kelly brought off an even better save from Graham Canty, who was more involved after moving out around midfield.

However, Cork continued to struggle while Offaly grew in confidence. Ross Connor, the 19-year-old son of former captain Richie Connor, did some great work at midfield alongside captain Alan McNamee, dual player Neville Coughlan made a valuable contribution at right half-back and Kellaghan roamed to good effect.

With 15 minutes to go, the margin was four points and, for all their faults, Cork never relaxed their effort, with Kevin McMahon and Kevin O'Sullivan to the forefront in attack. But, four unanswered points from the home side in a three-minute period put the issue beyond doubt and the game was in injury time when Daniel Goulding hit Cork's goal.

*Gerry Kinneavy's refereeing suffered because of hesitancy and it often led to errors.

Scorers: Offaly R. Connor 0-3 (0-2 frees); N. McNamee, J. Reynolds and P. Kellaghan 0-2 each; T. Deehan, A. McNamee and L. Mooney 0-1 each.

Cork: D. Goulding 1-0; K. O'Sullivan 0-2; C. McCarthy, K. McMahon and N. O'Leary 0-1 each.

OFFALY: P. Kelly; K. Lynam, S. Casey, B. Mooney; N. Coughlan, J. Rafferty, N. Grennan; R. Connor, A. McNamee (capt.); J. Reynolds, C. McManus, L. Mooney; T. Deehan, P. Kellaghan, N. McNamee.

Subs: J. Coughlan for McManus (injured, 46th minute); S. Ryan for Reynolds (62nd); T. Phelan for Deehan (70th).

CORK: A. Quirke; K. O'Connor, G. Canty, A. Lynch; N. O'Leary, G. Spillane, S. Lewis; D. Hurley, N. Murphy; F. Gould, C. McCarthy, K. McMahon; D. Goulding, B.J. O'Sullivan, K. O'Sullivan.

Subs: R. O'Mahony for B.J. O'Sullivan (second half); D. O'Connor for Murphy (injured, 46th); M. Shields for McCarthy (65th).

Referee: G. O Conamha (Galway).