Cooney: ‘It wasn’t pretty but it was all about the result’

THEY didn’t need to be told that this was far from an impressive performance but, after the trauma of their last visit to Croke Park, Offaly were content enough to leave HQ with the victory in the bag.

Last summer, Kevin Kilmurray’s side led Laois by six points at half time in the Leinster Championship but allowed their neighbours slip by them to the finish line with an horrendous second-half performance.

They were half a dozen points to the good again yesterday before having to withstand another surge after the interval. But this surge they weathered.

“It was good to get the win here after last year’s devastating defeat to Laois. It wasn’t pretty but it was all about the result today,” said acting Offaly manager Gerry Cooney, sitting in for the suspended Kilmurray.

“We will have to improve significantly on that performance though against Kildare the next day and whoever we meet from here on in. There is a Leinster final in this team. Beyond that, we will have to wait and see.”

“We knew Westmeath would come at us in the second half,” said Cooney. “We were prepared for it but we still didn’t get the start we wanted. After that we coped very well with them.”

Westmeath manager Tomas Ó Flatharta pointed to one factor: Dessie Dolan: “We knew for the last two weeks that we would have to do without him, but he is worth seven or eight points to us, he’s our free-taker and we did miss him.”