O’Dwyer’s mean machine: how Laois defence is doing its bit

THE last time Offaly managed so few scores against Laois in the championship was back in 1947.

That game was also played in O’Moore Park, so maybe the accepted wisdom that Offaly love to travel to Portlaoise needs to be re-appraised.

Four points in 70 minutes is a damning statistic for any team at any level of football, as is the fact that their only point of the second half came courtesy of a Ciaran McManus free with 10 minutes to go.

The first impulse on days like this is to point an accusatory finger at the beaten team, but let’s take another route. So, stand up the Laois back line and take a bow.

Three weeks ago they limited Tyrone to six points and in the three games against the All-Ireland champions, Meath and Offaly, they have yet to concede a goal. They may need a touch more fluency going forward, but their defence is purring along nicely.

Niall McNamee and Thomas Deehan were the twin assassins Laois needed to subdue yesterday, and in Aidan Fennelly and Joe Higgins they had two of the best corner-backs in the country to accept the job.

Neither of Offaly’s danger men managed a single score yesterday, and Fennelly and Higgins should be applauded for that.

“Myself and Aidan are playing reasonably well and training has gone well the last couple of weeks and there’s a small bit of understanding there,” said Higgins. “We tend not to go with our own man we just keep switching and it worked today.”

Laois looked in some trouble at half-time when, after kicking 11 wides and spurning three goal chances, they retired to the dressing room with only a two-point lead after playing with a stiff wind at their backs.

“We were worried,” Higgins admitted. “We were fairly mad with ourselves going in only two points up but we knew we could play against a wind like that after doing it against Tyrone. It just meant that everyone had to work so hard and everyone did.”

O’Dwyer wasn’t too bothered by the three goal chances that went a-begging, pointing out that it would be more of a worry if they weren’t creating the openings, but his team’s love of playing with a wind in their face puzzled him ever so slightly.

“We seem to play better against the wind than we do with it. Whatever the reason is for that I don’t know. The day we played Tyrone we played very well against the breeze and it was the same against Meath. It’s amazing but there’s great fire and great spirit in that team.”