Offaly's victory fails to raise expectations

Leinster SFC First round/ Offaly 0-15 Westmeath 0-11: The championship certainly doesn't start here. Some would call this insipid excuse for football the natural teething process of early summer, but of the 37,426 crowd maybe a thousand lingered to the bitter end. They were of an Offaly ilk.

An empty Croke Park hinders the atmospheric nature of any contest and, true, this was a tetchy meeting of neighbours, but on this display Offaly will struggle to make the provincial final, regardless of the soft draw.

The party is over in Westmeath. Páidí Ó Sé is long gone but his former lieutenant, Tomás Ó Flatharta, is manfully trying to guide a team that still contains 10 men with Leinster championship medals. When asked what the 2006 version lacks in comparison to the magical breakthrough summer of 2004, Ó Flatharta really only had a two-word response: Dessie Dolan. "The difference I suppose is the scoring power up front with Dessie. We had that two years ago. We didn't have that today. Dessie would be worth maybe five or six points."

Without an established free-taker, three different candidates tried to fill the vacancy. Dolan's older brother, Gary, landed a long-ranger early on but a few miscues later saw PJ Ward take up the baton. Ward showed flashes of class but missed the most important shot on the day. Dennis Glennon nailed one beauty.

This wasn't the only problem. Team captain Damien Healy went on to Neville Coughlan at the throw-in to marshal Offaly's most dangerous runner. With that option stymied, the midfield duo of Ciarán McManus and Alan McNamee went long, quickly and with regularity. Despite the presence of former All Star defender John Keane, Westmeath's last line was a shambles.

It could have been 2-9 to 0-3 at the turn as Thomas Deehan slipped the attentions of James Davitt on two occasions only for both goal chances to go abegging. The first ended with a poor wide from Niall McNamee, while for the second, goalkeeper Gary Connaughton forced Deehan wide when an early shot looked on.

Davitt was pulled ashore soon after, but that didn't plug the holes as Deehan, McNamee, McManus and Colm Quinn all scored from distance.

There followed a tame revival. Ward showed his potential with a couple of points, while Glennon also came alive with a free and some penetrating running.

Offaly full back Shane Sullivan took it upon himself to silence the marauding Glennon but two sloppy fouls in the space of three minutes left referee Paddy Russell with little option but to flash a red card after two yellows.

Gerry Cooney, manager for the day in the absence of the suspended Kevin Kilmurray, reacted immediately by replacing scoreless full forward Pascal Kellaghan with a defender, James Rafferty.

But just when some Dolan-esque inspiration was necessary, the error count went into overdrive and Offaly killed off the contest with points from Deehan and McManus, who had earlier struck two powerful 45s.

Alan Mangan finally ended a miserable period of inaccuracy with a score, followed soon after by Dolan but the momentum required for a late steal disintegrated when Ward flunked a straightforward free.

Anyway, Offaly were never going to allow a repeat of the heartbreak inflicted on them last year by Laois and Ross Munnelly.

They survived but this was an opportunity for a Leinster minnow to make a statement of intent. With far more interesting activity already unfolding in Ulster, none of the four teams in Croke Park yesterday look capable of upsetting the status quo of recent times.

Westmeath must prepare for a tour of Ireland, as Ó Flatharta called it, with Dolan potentially returning if they somehow engineer a route, through the back waters, back down the Jones Road. Don't bet on it.

For Offaly, Kildare are up next in a Leinster quarter-final so the only probing question Cooney had to answer before handing the reins back to Kilmurray is whether this team have a Leinster title in them? "There is a Leinster final certainly and then in the final anything is possible but that's been our target from day one. I don't believe we would be good enough today but we are working as hard as anyone else."

OFFALY: 1 P Kelly; 2 G Rafferty, 3 S Sullivan, 4 N Grennan; 5 K Lynam, 6 S Brady, 7 K Slattery (capt, 0-1); 8 C McManus (0-4, two 45's one free), 9 A McNamee; 10 C Quinn (0-3, two frees), 11 N Coughlan, 12 J Reynolds; 13 T Deehan (0-3), 14 P Kellaghan, 15 N McNamee (0-4, two frees). Subs: 18 J Keane for K Lynam (half-time), 17 J Rafferty for P Kellaghan (53 mins), 19 T Phelan for G Rafferty (67 mins), 20 J Coughlan for T Deehan (70 mins).

WESTMEATH: 1 G Connaughton; 2 J Davitt, 3 M Ennis, 4 J Keane; 6 D O'Donoghue, 5 D Healy (capt), 7 G Glennon; 8 D Duffy, 9 D O'Shaughnessy (0-1); 10 G Duffy (0-1), 11 G Dolan (0-2, free 45), 12 J Smyth; 13 PJ Ward (0-4, two frees), 14 D Glennon (0-1, free), 15 A Mangan (0-2). Subs: 17 B Nannery for J Davitt (25 mins), 18 D Heavin for J Smyth (42 mins).

Referee: P Russell (Tipperary).