Another step in Offaly's climb

The falling of the year and Offaly's manager Tommy Lyons fondly reminisces about how approximately 250 people turned up for his first home Church & General NFL match, a Division Four must-see against Waterford.

Yesterday, little over 12 months later, over 10,000 were in attendance to see Offaly, now Leinster champions, welcome All-Ireland winners Kerry to Tullamore and hand them their first competitive defeat in 53 weeks.

Perhaps the most striking measure of the distance travelled was Lyons's jolly demeanour. "We were lucky as hell," he said.

"Kerry were only at half-strength but it's two points in the bag; we set a target of 10 and now we've only four to go." Offaly are now able to shrug off victory over the All-Ireland champions.

In the other dressing-room, Kerry manager Paidi O Se was weary rather than distraught. "Yeah, we're tired. The management as much as the players. We worked hard all through last winter and now we're looking forward to a good break. There's one league match left, in two weeks against Sligo, and after that we'll knock off until after our holiday (to California after Christmas)."

Kerry's problems weren't confined to fatigue. Severely understrength, they could field only one of their All-Ireland attack, Denis Dwyer. This had the additional consequence of stripping them of a place-kicker and Rory O'Rahilly, a late call-up for Pa Laide (withdrawm with a back injury), took on the duties only about half an hour before throw-in and, a portfolio of poor attempts later, must have wished that he hadn't. Liam Flaherty had to cry off with a knee injury and Morgan O'Shea came into a rearranged defence.

Defence wasn't Kerry's main problem and the redeployed Seamus Moynihan and Killian Burns coped well under periods of relentless pressure. It shouldn't have been sufficient to hold Offaly to two points but the winners' forwards didn't have their most incisive day either, as 17 wides would suggest.

Having made hard work of reaching the break on level terms despite a virtual monopoly of possession, Offaly acquired a one-man advantage after Eamonn Breen was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 47th minute. Still they laboured and, despite Kerry's inability to add more than a point to their half-time tally, only pulled clear in the closing minutes.

In the early stages of the match which was held up by 10 minutes to allow the crowd into O'Connor Park, Offaly were rampant. Sean Grennan hit the post, Ciaran McManus hit the resulting 45 wide and Peter Brady dropped a shot short - all within the first four minutes.

Roy Malone got Offaly off the mark in the seventh minute with a point although a goal beckoned. McManus, whose productive afternoon was punctuated by a secondhalf incident which left him decked for a while, kicked a long-range point in the 10th minute and followed it with a 45 two minutes later to leave the home side three up by the end of the first quarter.

Together with James Grennan, McManus had a fine afternoon at centrefield and neither Dara O Se nor Donal Daly were able to get a grip on the sector.

As the first half neared conclusion, Offaly had established a 0-6 to 0-2 lead. Roy Malone blew a chance wide after a good ball from McManus and then Kerry struck some sort of alchemist's stone which turned their outplayed first half into something a lot better.

Moynihan, with the help of John Brennan, set up John Crowley to slide the ball into an open net and Breen stormed up the field for a point to level matters, 1-3 to 0-6, going in at the interval.

Lyons admitted that Offaly had been rattled by the goal and within a minute of the restart, Breen had replicated his earlier effort and Kerry actually led. It was their last score of the afternoon.

Offaly were inexplicably denied a penalty in the 32nd minute when Roy Malone carved out yet another goal chance and looked to have been upended by a combination of Morgan O'Shea and goalkeeper Declan O'Keeffe. Afterwards Lyons surprisingly demurred and commended the challenge as "as good a tackle as you'll see".

Malone was to pose no further threat as soon after he pulled a hamstring and was replaced by Colm Quinn. A fabulous sideline kick by Brady tied up the match in the 39th minute and Offaly commenced their campaign on their supporters' blood-pressure.

Breen's dismissal made the Leinster champions virtual certainties to win the match but they made such a production out of it that Kerry must have fancied their chances of stroking a win out of a breakaway score or two.

A draw, which would have been a heavy moral defeat for Offaly, loomed until Vinny Claffey at last pointed in the 56th minute. The margin was doubled in the last minute by John Kenny who impressed greatly in the unfamiliar surroundings of centre back to leave Offaly joint top of Section C together with Tyrone.