Gaelic Games

Longford thrash Offaly in Division Three opener

Three goals early in the second half set up easy Tullamore win for the Midlanders

Offaly were thrashed by Longford in Tullamore. Photograph: Tommy Grealy/Inpho

Sun Jan 28 2018 - 16:10

Longford 3-18 Offaly 1-13

Longford made a dream start to their National Football League campaign with a far easier than expected win over Offaly in Tullamore.

Expected to be close to a 50-50 game Longford won with ease and had plenty to spare at the final whistle.

It was impressive stuff by Longford who consistently opened up the home side, 3-18 a very satisfying return.

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For Offaly, it represented a fair horror show and they will be bitterly disappointed at how outplayed they were.

Longford hit the ground running and had four points on the board before they were stunned with a break away goal from Cian Donoghue and an equalising point from Bernard Allen in the 10th minute. With the wind at their back, Longford soon got the initiative back and strode into a 0-14 to 1-1 half time lead.

A goal from the outstanding Sean McCormack two minutes into the second half ended any slight hopes Offaly may have harboured. Rian Brady and Conor Berry soon added three pointers and it was 3-15 to 1-2 after 43 minutes.

It was a nightmare for Offaly but they managed to salvage a small bit of pride after this, outscoring the visitors by 10 points to three in the remainder.

Longford: P Collum (0-1, 45); P Fox, P McCormack, P Foy; M Quinn, B Gilleran (0-2), B McKeon; D Gallagher, A Farrell; D Minnagh, C Berry (1-0), D Reynolds (0-1); R Smyth (0-8, 4f), S McCormack (1-4), R Brady (1-2). Subs: D McElligott for Foy (Blood 17m), R McEntire for Gallagher (54), D McGivney for Farrell (54), P Foy for Fox (54), J McGivney for Reynolds (61), P Gill for Minnagh (63), S Donohoe for Berry (66).

Offaly: A Mulhall; D Brady, P McConway, J Lalor; D Dempsey, S Pender, C Donoghue (1-0); S Nally, C Dunne; J Hayes, A Sullivan (0-1), M Brazil; B Allen (0-3, 1f), C Johnson (0-3), N Dunne (0-1, f). Subs: J O'Connor (0-1) for Lalor (27), P Cunningham for Hayes (33), N Darby for Brazil (47), C McNamee (0-1) for C Dunne (47), J Moloney for Brady (54), S Tierney (0-3, 2f) for N Dunne (61).

Referee: N McKenna (Monaghan).

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