Former Dublin minor John O'Hara marked his Offaly debut with a stunning 3-3 as the Faithful County coasted to the easiest of victories against an awful Athlone IT in this O'Byrne Cup mis-match at Tullamore. Offaly...5-24 Athlone IT.0-9 O'Hara, who now lives in Clara and was a late replacement for Pascal Kelleghan, took his opportunity with both hands as Offaly set up a second round meeting with either Louth or DCU in impressive fashion. Niall McNamee also ran the Athlone defence ragged, topping the scoring honours with 2-7. The game was as good as over by half-time after goals from O'Hara in the third and 16th minutes helped the home side to a commanding 2-14 to 0-4 lead. With wind advantage in the second half, Athlone IT resumed with three points but it didn't take long for Offaly to regain the upper hand and by the end, they had inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the visitors. All six starting forwards got on the scoresheet for Offaly, who will be delighted to have made such a positive start to the year after a nightmare 2007, though the quality of the opposition was poor to say the least. Tweet

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