Horan overjoyed as Limerick finally fire
Horan was emotional as he discussed his side’s stylish victory over Offaly.
He said: “We’re a team full of fire. We played for our personal identity today. Hurling is on the up in Limerick and we needed a result. It was a super result, it was backs against the wall time. We listened to five weeks of criticism about not having enough heart after a very insipid display against Kerry.
“We had to come up with something. We’re losing players nearly every time we play (through injuries) but there’s a lot of resolve in that panel. And there’s more depth than people would realise. The most important thing is when we had our backs against the wall that we dug deep and showed that we were capable of coming through.”
His opposite number, Tom Cribbin, was exact in picking out where Offaly lost the game.
“In the first 10 minutes Limerick started like a whirlwind, and they got those early goals. The first one was probably a bit fortunate — we lost possession, the Limerick player pulled on it, and the ball ended in the net. We’re gutted — we came here believing we could win and improve from last year. We got rocked with two early goals and our shooting boots weren’t on.”
Cribbin was correct. Limerick tore into the game and might have had two goals before they struck for their first, an odd effort from Ian Ryan when he seemed well hemmed in on the end line — the corner-forward somehow bundled the ball over Alan Mulhall and into the net, making nonsense of the angle.
Ger Collins had a Limerick point before taking a hand in goal number two, laying on a sumptuous pass for Seamus O’Carroll, who finished well, making it 2-2 to 0-2 on 15 minutes.
Ryan had two more points before Offaly seemed to wake up, but then the midlanders took over, hammering over six points, four from the boot of the evergreen Ciarán McManus.
Unfortunately they also hit six wides, but despite their wayward shooting they were within touching distance at the half-time break (2-6 to 0-8).
Offaly continued their dominance of the middle of the field and chipped away at Limerick’s lead, but couldn’t get the goal that might have kickstarted their challenge.
“We needed to get a goal, the way Limerick were playing,” admitted Cribbin. “But that was always going to be very difficult the way they were funnelling back to defend.”
And hurtling forward to support their attack. Though pinned back for most of the half, with just under 10 minutes left the busy Stephen Kelly broke up an Offaly move in the opposing half and placed Ger Collins for a one-on-one with Mulhall — the Limerickman got the third goal, which made the game safe for the home side.
“Limerick played very well,” said Cribbin. “They had a good gameplan. Swarmed around the defence. When we put extra men up there they kept changing it.
“We had three men up there from our 45 in and it left us exposed a bit. We couldn’t counteract it early on. We just had to go with that, take that chance. We were creating a lot of scoring chances but we just didn’t take them.”
Horan, meanwhile, was looking ahead and looking back.
“Everywhere we went we were outsiders. Offaly had a bad result against Wexford and turned the tables against Monaghan, which was very positive. You’re judged on your last game. The Kerrys and Corks mightn’t be but the Limericks and Offalys are. We had to come up with something today. I’m a bit emotional.”
And entitled to be.
Scorers for Limerick: I. Ryan 1-7; G. Collins 1-2; S. O’Carroll 1-0; S. Kelly 0-2 (fs); T Lee and E. O’Connor, 0-1 each.
Scorers for Offaly: C. McManus 0-7 (fs), K. Casey, N. McNamee 0-2 each; N. Darby, B. Darby, B. Allen, P. Bracken 0-1 each.
Subs for Limerick: B Fitzpatrick for Mullane (48), E O’Connor for Gallagher (59), E Hogan for O’Carroll (61, M McCormack for Riordan (67).
Subs for Offaly: N Dunne for N Darby (54), D Egan for B Allen and S Lonergan for N Spain (both 54), S Ryan for R Brady (65).
Referee: Maurice Condon (Waterford).
Attendance: 18,900.
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