Eamonn O’Shea frustrated with ‘punishment’ his forwards are receiving

Offaly 0-13 Tipperary 1-16

Both the weather and the physical confrontations in O'Connor Park yesterday were of a tempestuous nature as Tipperary held off a second half surge from Offaly to secure their place in the semi-finals of the Allianz League, despite losing both Seamus Callanan and Cathal Barrett to red cards in the second half.

“It was one of those games where we were in control, but then events happen and you have to deal with them” said Eamonn O’Shea afterwards, remaining positive despite the fact that his team scored just one point in the last thirty minutes.

“I thought our attitude was first class, with fourteen players and with thirteen players, so that’s all we could ask for. Offaly came with a formidable challenge in the second half and that’s the way the game unfolded. We had to respond and we did.”

It'll be a matter of counting the cost for O'Shea this morning as Callanan's straight red means that he's likely to miss the league semi-final against Waterford, while midfielder Kieran Bergin sustained a serious ankle injury early in the second half and was immediately taken away for a scan.

An off the ball strike on Offaly full back Dermot Shortt led to referee John Keenan issuing a straight red card to the Tipp full forward two minutes into the second half, with O’Shea hinting that there might have been more to the tete-a-tete between the two men on the edge of the Offaly square.

“Seamus has been getting a lot of punishment. He got a lot of punishment last Sunday, so did John O’Dwyer and he couldn’t play today because of it”.

Offaly elected to play into the wind in the first half and after holding their own in the first seven minutes, they fell away for the remainder of the half, their hopes of an upset broken by Callanan’s stunning goal midway through the period.

Brendan Maher took control of the game from centre forward and Bergin was the dominant influence at midfield, picking off three scores from play, but his injury and Callanan’s red opened the door for Offaly to chip away at the lead.

However while the home side chiselled away with points, they needed the sledgehammer of a goal and in that regard, they found Darragh Egan far too good. He made two crucial saves to deny Shane Dooley from placed balls, the first of which was a penalty that saw Cathal Barrett receive a second yellow, while he also batted away an injury time effort from Stephen Quirke to cement his status as a genuine rival to regular starter Darren Gleeson.

Offaly: J Dempsey; D King, D Shortt, S Wynne; C Parlon, C Egan, P Camon; S Ryan, B Carroll (0-02); C Kiely, J Bergin (0-02), E Nolan; S Dooley (0-07, 0-03 frees, 0-01 '65), D Currams, S Quirke (0-02). Subs: T Carroll for Ryan (31), C Mulrooney for Currams (44).

Tipperary: D Egan; P Stapleton, C O'Mahony, C Barrett; M Breen, Pádraic Maher, R Maher (0-01); J Woodlock, K Bergin (0-03); J Forde (0-01), B Maher (0-03), Patrick Maher; N McGrath (0-01), S Callanan (1-06, 0-04 frees), N O'Meara (0-01). Subs: S McGrath for Bergin (44), S Bourke for O'Meara (57), C Kenny for Forde (61), Sean Maher for Patrick Maher (69).

Referee: John Keenan (Wicklow).