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Stephen Quirke celebrates scoring for Offaly. Cathal Noonan/INPHO
Fight Back

Kingdom come for Offaly but Faithful County survive relegation scare

The final score doesn’t do Kerry’s efforts justice this evening.

Offaly 3-19
Kerry 0-14

OFFALY HURLERS SURVIVED a huge Kerry challenge to retain their Division 1B status after this relegation play off at Semple Stadium.

Despite having Sean Cleary red carded in the 45th minute Offaly finished the stronger and two goals in the last 18 minutes from Stephen Quirke saw them pull clear in the end.

Kerry can take huge positives from this game though. Entering the game they were unbeaten, including a Division 2A league final win against Carlow last week.

And today they led Offaly by 0-7 to 0-0 after just nine minutes in Thurles, but Brian Whelehan’s side showed their superiority in the second-half to ease to victory.

Shane Nolan was central to Kerry’s early superiority and his four early points saw they race clear in the early stages.

Cleary got Offaly’s first score after ten minutes, but Offaly finished the half the stronger and Joe Bergin’s goal two minutes from the break saw the sides tied at 0-11 to 1-8 at half-time.

But Cleary was shown the line in the 45th minute for an incident on his way to the sideline when he was due to be replaced by Shane Dooley.

However, Offaly responded well to the setback and with Brian Carroll superb up front they began to pull clear.

Quirke flicked his first goal to the net in the 52nd minute and bagged his second four minutes from the end as Offaly took advantage of a jaded Kerry side, who had given their all.

Scorers for Offaly: S Quirke 2-1, J Bergin 1-1, B Carroll 0-8 (5f), C Mahon & S Dooley 0-2 each, C Egan, K Connolly, D Currams, S Cleary, T Geraghty 0-1 each.
Scorers for Kerry: S Nolan 0-8 (3f, 1 ’65), C Harty 0-2, D O’Connell, B O’Leary & P Boyle, B Brosnan 0-1 each.

Offaly: Conor Slevin; N Wynne, G Healion, J Rigney; B Harding, C Egan, C Parlon; K Connolly, Ciarán Slevin; B Carroll, D Currams, C Mahon; S Quirke, S Cleary, J Bergin.

Subs: P Geraghty for Ciarán Slevin (29), C McDonald for Healion (50), S Dooley for Bergin (51), T Geraghty for Quirke (65), K Brady for Connolly (70).

Kerry: T Flynn; B Murphy, T Murnane, T Casey; S Weir, D Dinneen, D O’Connell; J Griffin, C Harty; B O’Leary, D Collins, S Nolan; K Carmody, P Boyle, J Egan.

Subs: B Brosnan for Carmody (28), P O’Connor for Brosnan (51), J Leahy for O’Leary (54), P Lucid for Boyle (63).

Referee: Johnny Ryan (Tipperary)

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