Solid Armagh outpace Offaly

Reflecting on his team's latest defeat, Tommy Lyons sounded like a man at the end of his tether. "As far as I can see, it's a total waste of time for me to travel over 600 miles a week from Dublin to Offaly to train a team capable of that display."

He went on to describe his team's abject performance against a keen Armagh side at Crossmaglen as the worst he has seen since taking up football management in 1992.

"I can't make players play if they don't want to. We trained hard over the past six weeks. Fitness wasn't a factor, there was no fire in the belly," he claimed.

Inside the dressing room, after a game that Armagh could have won by nine points but didn't because they could not fully capitalise on their chances. Lyons lashed out at his players with such vigour that none of them would be surprised if he tendered his resignation this morning.

Armagh celebrated their first league match on the Crossmaglen grounds with a mixture of solid defence and erratic forward play. They outpaced Lyons' men throughout the opening quarter but failed to score until the 17th minute. It was a case of Armagh getting all the chances and Offaly getting all the luck.

Paul Dynes, James Byrne, Cathal O'Rourke and Diarmuid Marsden were some of the Armagh attackers who were particularly off target early on with easy chances. They had five wides inside the opening 10 minutes alone.

Offaly's luck came when they got a goal that should never have happened. Colm Quinn lobbed a free from the sideline only for Justin McNulty to mess what was clearly a goalkeepers ball and somehow the ball slipped through McNulty's fingers into the net.

The score gave Offaly a 1-1 to no score lead, completely against the run of play. That goal came in the 15th minute and it was two minutes later before Cathal O'Rourke hit Armagh's first score, a pointed free.

Armagh's misfortunes continued six minutes from half time when after Des Mackin was dragged down by Offaly goalkeeper Padraig Kelly, O'Rourke sent the resultant penalty over the bar. Then there was the sight of Diarmuid Marsden, having been sent clear by Kieran McGeeney, losing possession close in with Kelly's goal at his mercy.

Fortunately for Armagh they struck a good, if brief patch, in the second quarter to level the scores with a great Paul Dynes goal before then taking the lead with a point by the industrious Des Mackin with eight minutes remaining to half time.

Offaly's attackers, pitted against an in-form Armagh defence that was inspired by half backs Kieran Hughes and Kieran McGeeney, never found sufficient composure or the necessary degree of incisiveness that was clearly needed on the day.

In midfield, the holders lacked consistency with James Grennan and Ronan Mooney rarely playing well for any length of time. Yet, Armagh's manager Brian McIlinden thought his opponents played "reasonably well". He described his own team's display as a gutsy one and singled out the youngsters of the team Paul Dynes and Kieran Hughes for special mention.

While the standard of football failed to rise to any great heights in the second half the exchanges were quite lively with Armagh dominating in the third quarter during which they stretched their lead to six points before Offaly managed to muster their first score a point off a 45 by Ciaran McManus. This was Offaly's first score since the goal in the 15th minute.

McIlinden was generally pleased with his teams performance that puts them in third position with five points in table. As for Offaly's chances of reaching the knock out stages he felt that their prospects "ended today".

Armagh: B Tierney; E McNulty, G Reid, M McNeill; K Hughes, K McGeeney, A McCann; J McNulty, P McGrane; P Dynes (1-0), C O'Rourke (0-4 pen and three frees), J Rafferty (0-1); J Byrne, D Marsden (0-2 one free), D Mackin (0-2) Sub: P McKeever for O'Rourke (56 mins).

Offaly: P Kelly; C Daly, B Malone, D Foley; J Kenny, F Cullen, P O'Reilly; J Grennan (0-1), R Mooney; C Quinn (1-2 frees), C McManus ( 0-1), M Daly (0-1); D Connolly (0-1), V Claffey, R Malone. Subs: S Grennan for Connolly (half time). W Reynolds for R Malone (35 mins) P Brady for McManus (53 mins.)

Refreee: S Prior (Leitrim)