Whelahan says Faithful will respond to detractors
After a miserable 2014, the pressure was on the Faithful county, but they battled to a four-point win in a barnstormer of a game to avenge their loss to Laois at this stage last year.
Whelahan felt the victory was a timely reply to those who have been doubting the set-up: “Everyone has been knocking this Offaly team, and maybe the management as well, but the work-rate that has gone in this year has been fantastic. We’ve lads out there that want to hurl with Offaly. We’ve always said to them that we believe there are good hurlers in our squad, and I think we answered a lot of critics tonight.”
They had an outstanding display from Shane Dooley, who scored 1-14 of their total, while James Demspey saved two Zane Keenan penalties in the last ten minutes.
Laois had opened brightly and lead 0-3 to 0-1 after six minutes, but Offaly took control for the rest of the half.
They dominated at midfield, as Laois manager Cheddar Plunkett conceded: “I just felt in the first half Offaly seemed to be picking up an awful lot of breaking ball, particularly in the middle third. They were sweeping up a huge amount of breaking ball and we weren’t quick enough to get in and mop that up.”
Nine points from Dooley had Offaly leading 0-14 to 0-11 at half time, and when he fired a 21-yard free to the net minutes after the interval, the writing was on the wall for Laois.
Things didn’t get much better when wing-back Tom Delaney was red-carded, but Laois continued to battle bravely. Late on they were twice awarded penalties, but on both occasions Zane Keenan could not find a way through as Offaly held on for a victory which was worth much more to them than the two points on offer.
Scorers for Offaly: Shane Dooley 1-14 (1-10f), Shane Kinsella 0-3, Sean Ryan, Joe Bergin, Paddy Murphy 0-2 each, Cillian Kiely 0-1
Scorers for Laois: Zane Keenan 0-10 (0-7 frees, 0-1 65), Willie Hyland, Cha Dwyer 0-4 each, Neil Foyle 0-2, Joe Campion, Patrick Purcell, Ross King 0-1 each
LAOIS: E Rowland; JA Delaney, C Healy, B Stapleton; J Fitzpatrick, M Whelan, T Delaney; J Campion, P Purcell W Hyland, T Fitzgerald, C Dwyer; N Foyle, Z Keenan, R King. Subs: S Maher for Foyle (43), PJ Scully for Fitzgerald (53), D Palmer for Campion (55), B Conroy for King (65)
OFFALY: J Dempsey; N Wynne, D Shortt, S Egan; E Nolan, C Egan, D Mooney; P Camon, S Ryan; P Murphy, S Kinsella, D Currams; S Dooley, J Bergin, S Quirke. Subs: C Kiely for Mooney (52), S Cleary for Kinsella (65), G Mann for Ryan (69, inj), C Mulrooney for Murphy (72)
Referee: Alan Kelly (Galway).
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