‘Workmanlike’ Faithful need to improve, says coach Roe

OFFALY manager Pat Roe admits yesterday’s cakewalk against Carlow will leave his side ring rusty for their Leinster semi-final clash against either Meath or Dublin in a fortnight’s time.

Without a competitive game since April 8, Offaly were never stretched in Portlaoise yesterday, whereas the winners of next Sunday’s replay in Croke Park will be perfectly battle-hardened.

“That’s the danger and one of the things we will be looking at over the next few weeks,” said the former Carlow and Wexford manager. “It’s going to be much different to what he saw here today. Time on the ball is going to be down to a minimum, but we will factor those things into our preparations.”

Offaly did everything asked of them in this quarter-final clash, ending the game as a contest long before half-time. Their sleepwalk through the final 15 minutes, though annoying to Roe, was entirely understandable.

The team played with a discernible yet simple pattern and, though that might sound like a basic prerequisite at this standard, Carlow’s travails proved that isn’t actually the case.

Because of that, their next game will be a more appropriate laboratory on which to test Offaly’s capabilities.

“No disrespect to Carlow but it will be a huge step up for us now the next day. We will have to step up by 50% in the next few weeks to give ourselves a chance. We will look at what we need to do in the next few weeks.”

Though they scored 2-19, Offaly never looked like they were operating at fifth gear, but they seem to have the perfect mix of point scorers and ball winners with the former ensconced in their full-forward line and the latter operating to the rear.

Young Niall Smith may prove to be an able lieutenant for Alan McNamee at midfield, and the back line doesn’t look like a unit that will be conceding three goals again any time soon.

“It was workmanlike more than impressive,” said Roe of the performance. “We conceded three goals and they were poor goals. Overall I’m happy that we won and that we were workmanlike for the bulk of the game but we did lose our shape in the last 10 minutes.

“That’s always a danger when you are winning well. I’m not happy that we gave away 3-7. That would win a lot of matches.”

Underneath it all, a part of him must be glad that his old side roused themselves sufficiently to ward off a beating of monumental proportions. John Kearns obviously was as well.

At half-time, he appealed to his players’ sense of pride and his pleadings struck the right chord. “I told the lads at half-time when we were nine points down that they had two options. They could lie down and die like people probably expected them to or they could be men and fight to the final minute.

“In fairness to the guys, they outscored Offaly by 2-3 to 0-1 in the last quarter. They fought tooth and nail and that’s all we could ask for. It was a case of playing catch-up. They showed a bit of pride and came away with a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”

Next up for Kearns and Carlow is the Tommy Murphy Cup. Offaly will join them if they fail to win again in two weeks’ time but Roe isn’t giving much thought that grim prospect just yet.

“We decided after the league that we would take each match in championship at different stages,” said the Laois man. “Stage one was to win here, now we will refocus for stage two. The Tommy Murphy Cup isn’t a factor for us.”