Lyons hopes to restore Offaly's pride

IT wasn't the least bit surprising that Offaly's football manager, Tommy Lyons, had his team selection with the newspapers on the Monday Bank Holiday, and ahead of all other counties, for Sunday's Leinster senior football championship clash against Longford.

It was symbolic of his confidence in the players he has chosen for the Tullamore game. "We have nothing to hide. Cat and mouse games, coming out with team selections in the week of a game, never won a match," he says.

This will be Lyons' first time to be in charge of a team in the senior championship. He managed Dublin under 21 sides and led Kilmacud Crokes to their historic success in the All Ireland Club championship of 1994,

"For me there has been a lot of satisfaction from the point of view of the type of players I'm dealing with. They're all very sound fellas. There are no Ayatollahs, no fellas trying to dictate or control policy and they're all working very hard to try and restore pride in Offaly football," says Lyons.

He has great respect for his opposite number Eamonn Coleman and his ability to get the best out of a team. "He has done it all," says Lyons. "He will have Longford very fit, he has them competing very hard for every ball and he has them playing to a game plan. Our job will be to match that in all facets".

Speaking for himself and coselectors Paul O'Kelly of Edenderry and Eddie Fleming of Clara, Lyons adds: "We have our work cut out. They got into an AllIreland B final last year.

"A lot of people in the county don't realise how difficult it is going to be. Enda Barden is a right good footballer and much is going to depend on midfield."

Lyons' welldrilled team are favourites to win the preliminary group, despite being the only team to contest division four last year.

Promotion to division three from the basement of National League football is seen as hopeful in a county that had been accustomed to much greater things.

Lyons inherited an Offaly county panel last year short on passion and one that had forgotten how to win.

A one point defeat by Kildare in the League quarterfinals was a big disappointment for himself and his players. "A lot of Offaly people, satisfied with the progress we had already made to reach the quarterfinals, were not very disappointed with the outcome of that game, but the team was. We knew we had left it behind us, we felt we were good enough to win that day and reach the semifinals.

"Kildare could only score four points against us for 53 minutes. We didn't take our chances and I hope that lesson stands to us on Sunday," he says.

"The game on Sunday will be played 25 per cent faster than the League quarter finals. We have got to get up to that pace very quickly," he explains. "Our strengths before meeting Kildare was our scoring rate but when it got tighter in the quarter final that scoring rate slumped. This is something we will have to cope with".

Lyons supervises what is best described as a happy camp of players. Strategy in every game is often subjected to tactics spotter Dominic Twomey, an advisor from Kilmacud Crokes whose task is to view the broader picture during games from high up in the stand or from the highest vantage point available. Twomey relays this information to the dug out and Lyons usually responds promptly.

He adds "It starts for us on Sunday in the championship. We've prepared well but preparing well doesn't give you the right to win."

Longford's team is vastly changed from the one that went out at the same stage to Dave Foran's Wicklow last year. Seven members of that team have been replaced and only one defender, Colin Hannify, remains.

Eugene McCormack returns to the attack after a six year absence. The team has shaped up well in challenges, with minor Trevor Smullen proving an effective attack leader.

Meanwhile, Wexford will have to find a replacement at right corner forward for Scott Doran who was named in the position earlier in the week.

Doran's damaged ribs have not responded well enough to treatment for him to train this week and he has declared himself unfit to play against Westmeath.