Offaly supremo Pat Roe has become the fourth inter-county manager to announce his resignation in the past 48 hours. The former Laois star has informed Offaly county board chairman Pat Teehan of his decision to step down in the wake of the Faithful County's crushing All-Ireland qualifier loss to Down at Tullamore on Saturday night. Offaly's 5-19 to 2-10 defeat was one of the county's heaviest ever championship defeats and ultimately spelled the end of Roe's two-year term in charge. Roe, who previously managed Carlow and Wexford, will be bitterly disappointed at his failure to build on Offaly's achievement in reaching the 2006 Leinster final. Last year, they were relegated to Division 4 of the NFL and were thereby not allowed to play in the All-Ireland qualifiers. The Faithful County bounced back to win the Division 4 title earlier this year, beating Tipperary in the final, but the squad was weakened by a number of high-profile withdrawals and a six-point defeat to arch rivals Westmeath put paid to their Leinster championship hopes. Roe follows Longford's Luke Dempsey, Meath's Colm Coyle and Cavan's Donal Keogan in resigning from their managerial posts. Mullingar-based Dempsey could well be a candidate to succeed Roe, having indicated after Longford's defeat to Laois his desire to remain in inter-county management. Tweet

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