Lee Pearson is hoping Offaly can give a good account of themselves against Dublin in Sunday’s Leinster SFC semi-final.

The reigning All-Ireland champions are unbackable favourites to collect a 14th Delaney Cup in a couple of weeks' time. Such is their dominance of the Leinster football landscape that there has even been calls for them to be removed from the competition.

Such talk, however, isn’t of concern to Pearson and his Offaly team-mates as they seek to build on a strong finish to the Allianz League and a first Leinster Championship victory over neighbours Laois in 22 years.

“There has been a lot said about the Leinster Championship being non-competitive, but that goes over our heads,” the Faithful captain told this week’s Offaly Topic.

“We’re just looking forward to getting back to Croke Park and playing in our second successive Leinster semi-final for the first time since 2007. If we were on the other side of the draw (Kildare and Louth meet in the other semi-final), people would be giving us a great chance of reaching the final.

“Outside of the O’Byrne Cup, we haven’t played Dublin before so it’s a step into the unknown. You always want to test yourself against the best and this is a chance to do that. We’re not bothered by the fact that we have a very slim chance of winning.

“We’ll have a plan and are going up with the intention of giving a performance. If we can do that, we’ll be happy. A good performance against Dublin would give us momentum going into the Tailteann Cup.”

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