Offaly produced a brilliant display to defeat favourites Down by 3-22 to 1-20 in this evening’s Tailteann Cup Round 2A clash in Tullamore.

Dylan Hyland was in red-hot form for the hosts as he hit 1-11 over the 70 minutes for the home side, including a 16th minute penalty which put them three points up after Pearse McPolin had registered a goal for Down seven minutes earlier.

Two-pointers by Keith O’Neill and Jordan Hayes extended the Faithful men’s lead and a Shane Tierney goal would soar them towards a 2-13 to 1-11 advantage at the half.

Patrick Havern helped close the margin to one for the visitors, but Hyland pushed Offaly clear again and a Diarmuid Egan goal late on would seal the crucial victory for them.

In Ruislip, Laois saw off London by 1-29 to 1-14 to move into the second-tier competition’s knockout stages.

The O’Moore men were 0-4 to 0-3 up when Evan O’Carroll hammered in their goal in the 13th minute and, after holding a 1-11 to 0-7 lead at the break, two-pointers from Paul Kingston, Padraig Kirwan and Cian Nolan in the second-half would help cruise the visitors to a 15-point win in the end.

In Round 2B, Wicklow made sure of their place in the preliminary quarter-finals with a 4-17 to 2-14 win over last year’s runners up Limerick.

Eoin Murtagh’s goal two minutes in gave Oisin McConville’s side the perfect start in Aughrim and they’d add more majors either side of half-time via Padraig O’Toole and Dean Healy before Malachy Stone raised their fourth green flag with the last score of the game.

Longford knocked Clare out with a hard fought 2-17 to 1-18 win in Ennis.

Having edged a 0-8 to 0-7 lead at half-time, the Midlanders fell behind after conceding a Cillian Rouine goal and trailed with less than 10 minutes remaining before netting a timely goal through Dylan Farrell.

Farrell would add two more points for the visitors ahead of Oran Kelly crashing in their second goal, leaving late two-pointers from Aaron Griffin and Emmet McMahon to only be consolation for the Banner men in the end.

Meanwhile, Leitrim produced a strong second-half display to see off Carlow on a 0-22 to 1-13 score at Carrick-on-Shannon.

The home side trailed by four early in the second-half before shooting over three two-pointers in-a-row and more long range efforts from Paul Honeyman and ‘keeper Killian Gaffney (free) saw them erasing an Adam McCarron goal.

From there, a brace of points each from Honeyman and Gaffney would see them over the line into Monday’s third round draw.

Tomorrow (Sunday) sees Fermanagh and Wexford clashing in Round 2A at 1pm before Antrim host Tipperary (3.15pm), while in the remaining Round 2B encounter sees Waterford welcoming Sligo to Fraher Field (1pm).

Round 3 Draw Monday!

As a Round 2B winner Leitrim can be drawn vs one of

⬜🟩 London

Losers of
🟩⬜ Fermanagh/🟪🟨Wexford

Losers of
🟨⬜ Antrim/🟦🟨 Tipp

*Separate draw for home advantage

____

We cannot play ⬛🟥Down again after their loss to 🟩🟨⬜ Offaly today

⬇️ pic.twitter.com/P7laoSiQi1

— Darren Mulvey (@DarrenMulvey) May 23, 2026

Tweet

Most Read Stories