Longford brush aside Offaly to set up league final with Limerick

Longford manager Diane O’Hora insists her players must improve considerably to tackle Limerick in the Bord Gáis Energy Ladies National Football League Division 4 final on May 5.

The midlanders beat Offaly by 3-17 to 1-8 in yesterday’s semi-final at Mullingar, but O’Hora revealed preparations for the final will be disrupted by players absent from training.

O’Hora, a former All-Ireland senior medallist with Mayo, explained: “We’ll be missing eight or nine players from training during the coming week. Girls have to work and they have no choice in that. But Longford need to get out of Division 4.

“We played them early in the League and they were missing a number of players who were gone off playing colleges camogie on that weekend. They’ll be adding in four or five players and we’ll find them very tricky.”

Two goals from Edel Quinn, including a penalty, helped Longford on their way to a comfortable victory against Offaly. And they got off to the perfect start when Anne Marie Bratten netted in the first minute.

Meanwhile, Limerick defeated Louth by just a single point, 0-8 to 0-7, in the other semi-final played at Crettyard, Laois.

Louth were on top for much of the game but paid the price for missed chances as the Shannonsiders squeezed through. Jenny McGuinness was off-target with a late free that would have taken the game to extra-time but the forward’s effort went just wide.

McGuinness did finish as Louth’s leading scorer, however, with 0-3 while Dymphna O’Brien hit a similar tally for Limerick.

Ann Eager’s Limerick side had to come from a point down at half-time, 0-3 to 0-4, to book their place in the showpiece decider.

“It looked like Louth were going to destroy us in the early stages,” Eager admitted. “We’re notoriously slow starters and it wasn’t good for the heart out there! It was nail-biting stuff and you’d have to feel sorry for Louth as well.”