Offaly gave themselves a lifeline thanks to a 1-17 to 2-11 win over 13-man Carlow at O'Connor Park this afternoon.

The win was inspired by their talisman Shane Dooley who finished the match with a personal tally of 1-10 as Offaly now face Kerry in the last round with the winners going through to the quarterfinals.

Dooley was certainly the difference between the sides as his array of scores kept Offaly in front at critical times, but credit to Carlow who battled all the way.

Diarmuid Byrne and Hugh Paddy O'Byrne were both shown red cards by referee James McGrath as Carlow finished the match with 13 men and they are relegated to the Christy Ring Cup for next year.

It looked as if Offaly were headed for another hammering as they trailed by 0-03 to 0-00 after four minutes as Seamus and Sean Murphy and James Doyle were all on target.

The latter and Kevin Connolly exchanged points before Kevin McDonald made it 0-05 to 0-01 after just six minutes.

However, Offaly took over for the next 15 minutes as they hit six unanswered points. Shane Dooley hit five of those including an exquisite line ball in the 13^th minute, while Joe Bergin was also on target.

John Michael Nolan hit a great point from distance to stop the rot, but two more points from Dooley made it 0-09 to 0-06.

Good work by Carlow ended with Ross Smithers rifling the ball to the net to level matters before a McDonald free left Carlow leading by a point at the break.

Five minutes into the second half Dooley levelled matters with a pointed free but a minute later Seamus Murphy had the ball in the Offaly net and the Barrowsiders led by 2-07 to 0-10.

From the puck out, Offaly went down the other end of the field and worked the ball to Dooley who made no mistake with a crisp shot to the net.

The sides exchanged points before James Mulrooney fired over a point for Offaly as they went into a three-point lead by the 50^th minute.

Diarmuid Byrne and Paddy Murphy exchanged points before a long range free by Denis Murphy made it 1-15 to 2-11.

Carlow could not get any closer as the red cards didn't help their cause and two more points sees them hang on their quarterfinal hopes for another while.

Offaly - J Dempsey; P Rigney, D Shortt, C McDonald; D Mooney, S Gardiner, D King; P Camon, S Cleary; S Kinsella, J Bergin (0-2, 1f), C Kelly; P Murphy (0-2), S Dooley (1-10, 0-6f, 0-1'65, 0-1sl), K Connolly (0-1). Subs: J Mulrooney (0-2) for C Kelly, P Guinan for S Cleary, J Sampson for K Connolly.

Carlow - B Treacy; G Coady, M Ryan, A Corcoran; D Byrne (0-1), R Coady, J O'Hara; J Doyle (0-3), R Kelly; Seamus Murphy (1-1), M Kavanagh, K McDonald (0-2, 1f); J M Nolan (0-1), Sean Murphy (0-1), R Smithers (1-0). Subs: D Murphy (0-2, 1f) for K McDonald, H P O'Byrne for J M Nolan, C Lawlor for R Kelly.

Referee - J McGrath.

Tweet

Most Read Stories