'We need to man up and fight and that is what these boys did today' – Offaly senior hurling manager

OFFALY senior hurling manager Johnny Kelly had listened to the pre-match talk from supporters and others with bemusement. He had heard the theory that Offaly should not worry too much about Saturday's Leinster Senior Hurling Championship clash with Wexford and should instead focus on the closing showdown with Antrim.

As things turned out, Offaly gave a terrific, gutsy performance in a 2-17 to 1-17 defeat in Wexford Park and were very close to the win. It means that they welcome Antrim to Tullamore next Sunday for a relegation shootout – even if Offaly had won, next week's game would still have been one of the highest stakes possible with relegation very much on the table.

Offaly certainly didn't hold anything back as they rattled Wexford with every ounce of their fibre. Level going into injury time, a spectacular late Lee Chin goal got Wexford across the line but the relief of their supporters was palpable afterwards.

Kelly was adamant that Offaly were never going to give less than 100% and go flat out for the win.

“I am disappointed because we didn't get those but I am happy enough with the battling performance by our lads and just desperately sick that we came away with a loss right at the end.

“Every game is a big game in this Leinster championship. I heard a lot of talk around the place that Offaly should hold back against Wexford today and not put out a performance. We were out in the Leinster championship for the first time in seven years. If that is the mentality we have, we are going nowhere. We need to man up and fight and that is what these boys did today.”

He was happy that Offaly were much more competitive than in their defeats by Kilkenny and Galway and felt that some crucial refereeing decisions went against them.

“A couple of big calls right towards the end definitely went against us. Early, he gave us a free at one stage when Charlie Mitchell had broke through. Colin Spain was fouled just prior to Lee Chin getting the goal for Wexford. Certainly he was there right at it, looked at it and didn't give it. A couple of other things. Brian Duignan struck right across the back of the head and nothing for it. We have been training these lads for the last six months about not coming in high with challenges like that.”

The Portumna man did not subscribe to the theory that a big performance in Wexford would drain their energy levels for the must win battle against Antrim.

“We go again next weekend and there is no danger of these lads being anyway fatigued. They are battle hardened and they will go again. We will see where it takes us.”

1-10 to 1-6 ahead at half time after playing with the wind, Offaly dug deep all over the field in the second half to bring it down to the wire.

“There was a strong breeze there in the second half and we did really, really well to break even on our puck outs. We got some great scores off them. We could see lads were starting to flag and we brought in a couple of lads. Just missed a couple of chances as well. It wasn't all down to decisions against us, we had that but we had a massive improvement from the week before.”

There was an all round improvement in work rate and ball winning all over the field, especially in attack.

“Against Kilkenny I think we only retained six or seven deliveries that went into our full forward line. We had blown that our of the water after the first five-ten minutes today. That was a big sea-change and that is down to the players themselves.

“There were some choice words during the week but it was coming from them more than us. That is that done and we move onto next week.

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“You keep saying Antrim but today was a massive game. The day before was a massive game. Next week is a massive game and that is the mentality we had and we just have to do our best in every single game. We get the recovery in and go again in seven days which is at least one more day than we had the last two weeks.”