Despite suffering a six point Allianz HL Division 1B reversal against Laois last night, Offaly manager Kevin Ryan saw a chink of light in their performance in O'Moore Park.

The Faithful County's cause wasn't helped by red cards shown to Sean Gardiner and Aidan Treacy either side of half-time but their manager was encouraged by the fact that they refused to throw in the towel.

It was, he pointed out in conversation with The Leinster Express, an improvement on their lack-lustre showing against Galway in round one.

"There was probably more positives in it than last week, in the sense that when we did go down to thirteen, they were up for the second half anyway with fourteen, but I thought they went up another gear when we went down to thirteen.

"I saw a few things that we hadn't seen up to now, which was encouraging. It's disappointing to see any league aspirations you might have had dropping before your eyes, but at the same time we just had a chat about it there when we came in, and there are an awful lot of positives there, if we can get to that level with fifteen men for seventy minutes, it's very encouraging.

"As disappointing as it is, it is very encouraging."

Laois capitalised on their numerical advantage to secure a 1-26 to 1-20 victory and Ryan's O'Moore County counterpart Eamonn Kelly observed: "We knew Offaly were going to come out all guns blazing, they had a difficult week, no more than ourselves, and they got a good start, scored 1-2, but credit to our lads, they fought back and came back level again.

"It was a ding-dong battle then until the man got sent off, I think it would have been a very competitive game other than that."

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