Edenderry hold out to become Offaly senior football champions

Edenderry 1-12 Rhode 1-10

A performance full of hard work, determination and quality saw Edenderry cause an upset when they defeated reigning champions, Rhode in the Offaly Senior Football Championship final in Tullamore on Sunday.

It may have been a very close run thing with only two points separating the sides at the end and Edenderry’s 12th point coming from sub, Gary Blong, deep in injury time but the better team won.

It was an excellent performance by Edenderry in a very exciting game of football and Rhode did not play well enough on the day to have won. They could have forced a replay as Niall McNamee and Anton Sullivan missed good late chances when just a point separated the sides but they had no complaints at the result.

Rhode made a dream start with a Ruari McNamee goal after just twenty seconds but it quickly became evident that Edenderry meant business as they worked hard at closing down opponents.

A brilliant 26th minute Derek Kelly goal helped Edenderry to a 1-7 to 1-6 half time lead and it was clear that they were not going away.

The sides were level on three occasions in the second half but man of the match, Sean Doyle and Jordan Hayes gave Edenderry a crucial two point lead with fifteen minutes left and they were able to hold on in a frantic and low scoring closing quarter.

EDENDERRY: C Hurley; A Pender, D Hanlon, S Pender; A Mahon (0-1), C Byrne, S Moriarty (0-1, '45'); R Dalton (0-2), S Guing; K McGuinness (0-1, f), D Kelly (1-1, 1f), O Lawton; S Doyle (0-4, 3f), A McDonnell, J Hayes (0-1). Subs - C Hurley for Lawton (h/t), A Kenny for McDonnell (48m), M Young for McGuinness (60m), G Blong (0-1) for Hayes (61m).

RHODE: K Garry; J Kavanagh, E Rigney, J McPadden; C Heavey, B Darby, E Byrne; A McNamee, D Garry (0-2); N Darby (0-1, f), C McNamee (0-1), S Hannon; A Sullivan, R McNamee (1-1), N NcNamee (0-5, 1f). Subs - G O'Connell for Byrne (37m), S Sullivan for Kavanagh (47m), P McPaden for Hannon (48m), P Sullivan for D Garry (56m), P Kellaghan for R McNamee (57m).

Referee: D Walsh.