Offaly take advantage as Antrim caught cold

Offaly 5-27 Antrim 4-9

“We thought it was a 3pm start”, said Antrim manager Kevin Ryan afterwards. “That threw us off and may have had something to do with the first half. ”

The sides will meet again in a relegation play-off final on Sunday at Ballycastle so both managers fielded experimental teams. But Brian Whelahan had a lot more to be happy about as Conor Doughan, Seán Cleary and Stephen Quirke all scored freely, although the Offaly manager expressed some concern at the way PJ O’Connell cut through his defence to register a second half hat-trick.