Pat Flanagan’s faith rewarded as fiery Offaly advance

Offaly 2-21 Longford 2-13: Offaly manager Pat Flanagan was understandably jubilant after Offaly won their first Leinster Championship match in nine years but was quick to challenge his players to go further.

Flanagan’s men had eight points to spare at the end of very open affair that ebbed and flowed initially before a run of 10 unanswered points earned them valuable breathing space against the team that had beaten them in the last two seasons.

He revealed: “I’m going to say it to the boys when I go in: ‘what are we going to do with this win?’ We haven’t thought any further than this game. Longford have been exceptionally good over the last number of years and we knew we were going to have a very tough game right up until the bitter end.