Offaly maintain unbeaten record after seeing off stubborn Carlow
WINNING RUN: Offaly boss Johnny Kelly. File pic: INPHO/James Crombie
In an otherwise even contest, self-inflicted errors cost Carlow dearly this afternoon against Offaly, as they paid a steep price for their poor finishing and poor discipline.
Tom Mullally’s side are now out of the running for a league semi-final place and are still mathematically in the relegation battle too, while Offaly confirmed their place in the knockout stages of league competition and will host Kildare in Tullamore next week knowing that a win will see them secure automatic passage through to the final.
Manager Johnny Kelly won’t be fooled with their comfortable margin of victory on Saturday, however, as he’ll know that the final result – and particularly their 0-11 to 0-6 interval lead – was not a reflection of the flow of play as a whole.
Eoghan Cahill was in excellent form for the Faithful County, both from frees and from general play, while Charlie Mitchell, Kiely and Oisín Kelly also weighed in with excellent scores. Carlow registered a couple of nice points too, but Martin Kavanagh had a real off-day from frees, missing multiple chances in each half, while last week’s four-goal hero Paddy Boland spilled a short pass when a clean catch would have left him clean through on goal, and Ciarán Burke was able to swoop in and avert the danger before Boland could regroup.
After the change of ends, the home side fell into the trap of playing the ball long because they could, instead of doing so because they should, for the first ten minutes of their wind-assisted second half. This opened the door for Carlow to eat into their lead, with Ciarán Whelan and Martin Kavanagh on the mark from play, in between two converted frees that reduced the gap to a goal, 0-13 to 0-10.
Offaly’s best performers during this phase of the game were all in their own half of the field, with Ross Ravenhill, Ben Conneely and Ciarán Burke particularly impressive, but at the other end of the pitch, poor distribution was allowing Carlow’s defence to lock down the threat of the Offaly attack.
A second yellow card for Diarmuid Byrne after 48 minutes, awarded for a needless trip out by the sideline, opened things up a little for Offaly, who briefly moved five points ahead, but an equally rash frontal charge for Cillian Kiely with a quarter of an hour to play negated that numerical advantage, and while the lead was never less than three points, nobody was tempted to leave the Tullamore venue in any sort of confidence that the contest was resolved.
Jack Kavanagh became the third man to see red in the 67th minute for an off-the-ball incident, adding to the litany of dismissals that Carlow have had this season, and the contest opened up from there, with Adrian Cleary and Shane Dooley shooting late points either side of a David Nally goal, balanced out by a scrappy Jack McCullagh effort at the other end.
E Cahill 0-11 (0-8f), C Kiely 0-4 (0-1f), D Nally 1-0, O Kelly 0-1, C Mitchell 0-1, A Cleary 0-1, S Dooley 0-1.
M Kavanagh 0-5 (0-3f), C Nolan 0-3 (0-1f), J McCullagh 1-0, D Byrne 0-1, J Kavanagh 0-1, J Doyle 0-1, C Whelan 0-1.
S Corcoran; J Screeney, C Burke, B Conneely; D King, J Sampson, K Sampson; J Clancy, R Ravenhill; D Nally, O Kelly, A Cleary; E Cahill, C Kiely, C Mitchell.
Pg Cantwell for King (30), E Kelly for O Kelly (63), P Delaney for Clancy (68), S Dooley for Mitchell (70+3), D Maher for Screeney (70+3).
B Tracey; C Lawler, P Doyle, J McCullagh; J Kavanagh, F Fitzpatrick, K McDonald; D Byrne, J Doyle; C Whelan, M Kavanagh, J Nolan; J Tracey, C Nolan, P Boland.
C Kehoe for Whelan (41), P O’Shea for C Nolan (55), F O’Toole for Tracey (58), M Joyce for Boland (64), R Coady for Fitzpatrick (68).
M Kennedy (Tipperary).
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