Limerick 1-24
Offaly 0-10
OFFALY FELL to a 17-point loss to Limerick in their Division 1B encounter Tullamore this afternoon.
The Faithful enjoyed an impressive win over Dublin last weekend, but were unable to build on that Croke Park victory.
Offaly’s Damien Egan missed a first-half penalty before they lost Dermot Shortt to a red card 10 minutes into the second-half. They were seven points down at that stage and from there Limerick powered to the 1-24 to 0-10 success.
All-Ireland U21 winner Aaron Gillane posted 1-8 for the Shannonsiders, while Shane Dooley made his 101st appearance for Offaly.
Scorers for Limerick: A Gillane 1-8 (0-6f), G Hegarty, D O’Donovan (0-1f), P Browne 0-3 each, D Byrnes, 0-2, O O’Reilly, D Reidy, T Morrissey, C Lynch, S Flanagan 0-1 each.
Scorers for Offaly: D Egan 0-6 (0-4f), T Geraghty, C Gath, S Kinsella, D Currams 0-1 each.
Limerick
N Quaid
S Finn
S Hickey
R English
D Byrnes
D Morrissey
P O’Loughlin
P Browne
C Lynch
T Morrissey
D O’Donovan
B O’Connell
A Gillane
S Flanagan
G Hegarty
Subs:
B Murphy for O’Donovan (53)
D Reidy for Morrissey (58)
O O’Reilly for Hegarty
A LaTouche Cosgrove for Lynch (both 63)
L Lyons for Gillane (67).
Offaly
C Slevin
T Spain
S Gardiner
B Conneely
D O’Toole
P Camon
D Shortt
D King
S Kinsell
D Egan
C Egan
D Currams
T Geraghty
C Mahon
O Kelly
Subs:
S Dooley for Geraghty (ht),
C Kiley for King (45)
P Rigney for Mahon (57)
C Gath for Kelly
C Cleary for C Egan (both 61)
Referee: S Cleere (Kilkenny).
******************
Dublin 0-23
Antrim 0-22
Donal Burke hit the game-winning free in the 76th minute to hand Dublin their first victory of the Division 1B campaign.
Antrim ran All-Ireland champions Galway to three points last weekend and were unlucky not to get a share of the spoils at Corrigan Park today.
Veteran Conal Keaney bagged a brace of scores for Pat Gilroy’s side, who surrendered a seven-point lead in the second period. Neil McManus hauled back the deficit for Antrim and finished with an incredible haul of 0-16, but Burke eventually hit the winner.
Scorers for Dublin: P Ryan 0-8 (0-6f, 0-1 ’65′), D Burke 0-7 (0-4f), F Whitely, C Keaney, C McBride 0-2 each, J Madden, D Sutcliffe 0-1 each.
Scorers for Antrim: N McManus 0-16 (0-11f, 0-2 ’65s’), A Graffin, J McNaughton 0-2 each, G Walsh, D McCloskey 0-1 each.
Dublin
A Nolan
P Smyth
B O’Carroll
E O’Donnell
S Barrett
C Crummey
J Madden
C McBride
T Connolly
D Burke
F Whitely
D Sutcliffe
C Keaney
E Dillon
P Ryan
Subs:
L Rushe for Ryan (51)
J McCaffrey for McBride (53)
N McMorrow for Connolly (64)
P Winters for Dillon (69).
Antrim
C O’Connell
P Burke
J Dillon
A Graffin
J Maskey
M Donnelly
D Kearney
C McKinley
G Walsh
N Elliott
N McManus
J Connolly
D McKinley
C McCann
C Johnston
Subs:
C Carson for Connolly (inj 8)
N McAuley for Maskey (43)
J McNaughton for Walsh (45)
R McCambridge for McCann (53)
D McCloskey for Elliott (63).
Referee: J Heffernan (Wexford).
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I know it is February, I know it is the league, I know it is Offaly
@Fergus McGrath: diff
@Fergus McGrath: different tears in Michael Duignan’s eyes this evening
Limerick surely favourites for Liam this year by the looks of things!
@Paddy: you MUST be a hurling genius
@conor murphy: By god I am, having listened to many a Limerick fan over the years, they have me NEARLY brainwashed
@Paddy: limerick favourites? You mad? A munster final and all ireland semi (even though I think there’s more in this side) I’d be happy with for this year
@David Dooley: Excuse me for not making my sarcasm more clear.
@David Dooley: That would be an amazing season for Limerick, I can’t see it happening though..
I was at the game. Limerick were very poor for long periods in the game. The team still appear to be preoccupied with possession hurling from the back( think man city). Offaly got great success from pressing hard in limerick halfback line and midfield area. Limerick weren’t clever enough to recognise this and see the space behind that press and were regularly turned over. The turning points were a missed penalty, soft sending off and 5 pointable frees by iffy.