Offaly name unchanged fifteen for crunch minor football clash

AS expected Offaly have named an unchanged fifteen for their crunch Leinster Minor Football Championship group 2 second round clash with Longford on Tuesday evening.

Offaly manager Adrian Farrell and selectors have stuck with the same fifteen that gave Dublin a good run before losing out by 3-14 to 1-13 in the first round in Parnell Park.

Offaly performed well on the day and were not far away but could not cope with a brilliant Dublin marksman, Cian Raftery, who scored a fantastic 1-9 from play, including three first half two pointers.

Westmeath beat Dublin in their second round clash last week and the Longford game in Faithful Fields is a huge one for Offaly. With three teams qualifying from the group, the winners will have one foot in a preliminary quarter-final – Offaly are away to Westmeath in their final game.

There was plenty of positives in the first round against Dublin but apart from Raftery and a couple of other players, the winners were quite limited and a good Westmeath team showed this in a 1-16 to 1-12 win last week.

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Westmeath beat Longford by 3-15 to 0-12 in the first round and both Offaly and Longford will be treating this as a knockout game, even if they do have an escape chute against Dublin and Westmeath in the final round. Tuesday's game is at 7.30pm and Offaly certainly have the ability to win this one but they have to go and do it now.

OFFALY: Ryan Casey (Tullamore); Cormac Staunton (Clodiagh Gaels), Oran Kenny (Ferbane), Jake Conlon (Tullamore); James Slevin (St Rynagh's), Cathal Carroll (Erin Rovers), Stephen Murrihy (Tullamore); John Carroll (Clara), Patrick Duffy (Tullamore); Evan Daly (Ballycumber), Darragh Stewart (Tullamore), Jamie Harvey (Tullamore); Oliver Goulding (Edenderry), Paddy Burns (Daingean), Dara Waldron (Ferbane). Subs – Max Kruger (Gracefield, Noah Foran (Edenderry), Oisin Pender (Edenderry), Robbie Minnock (Daingean), Hugh Kelly (Kilclonfert), Sean O'Shea (Shannonbridge), Donnacha Seery (Edenderry), Shane Lawless (Daingean), Sean Monahan (Edenderry).