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Joe Bergin celebrates scoring his side's second goal ©INPHO/James Crombie
Fresh baker

Hurling analysis: Faith’ not departing for Offaly

Ollie Baker’s men made the small margins count on Saturday night as Wexford

OFFALY AND WEXFORD are two teams wrestling with self-confidence.

The Faithful could quite easily have gone seven points down when Diarmuid ‘Gizzy’ Lyng should have rattled James Dempsey’s net in the 17th minute — it was a massive moment for a side used to losing this fixture. At that stage, Wexford were in the driving seat and cruising.

The coulda, woulda, shouldas of inter-county hurling.

Because that miss, from a man impressing on his return, seemed to suck some of the confidence from the Model County. Perhaps not just that moment because it came in the midst of a ten-minute spell where Liam Dunne’s side were dictating.

With the game level at 0-3 apiece, Wexford had 10 attempts at goal without interruption. Offaly’s quick puckouts has been catching out Wexford, that is unless playmaking half-forward Colin Egan was not catching them outright.

But Dunne’s men wised up and won possession from seven of the Faithful’s next nine puckouts during the middle of the first half. One of which almost led to Lyng’s goal.

The problem with this dominance is that they did not capitalise on it. Just four points from those 10 attempts in a row. And while Offaly pegged it back from 0-7 to 0-3 to actually nudge themselves on front on 1-8 before the interval, Wexford had squandered nine chances in a row.

Worse again, from open play the Model County put away just 0-6 from 17 shots in the first half while the Faithful returned 1-4 from nine attempts. Night-and-day stuff in the fading light of Tullamore.

That was decisive and ultimately gave the Model County too much to do, albeit on another day they would have sneaked it. Jack Guiney showed great leadership for a 19-year-old debutant. Once, twice, three times a man when he stood over 21-yard frees. Number one off the crossbar, two: in the net, three hit a Wexford tree on the line.

Offaly players block a goal bound free during the final moments of the match ©INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Fine margins but finer composure by Offaly who didn’t panic under duress. They switched the play from side to side and looked for mismatches all game long. Joe Bergin and Egan were responsible for five of the nine scores in the first half and the pair combined for one of those.

Shane Dooley gave Willie Devereaux a debut to forget but the moment that will hurt most for the young defender was something clearly planned by Ollie Baker’s men. It was one of many direct balls by the Faithful and it was a perfect mismatch in isolation for Dooley who caught out man and ball from behind.

Before the game, the talk was of how Offaly might struggle to win ball in their half-forward line and from puckouts. While both struggled at times, the problem was more Wexford’s who collected possession just 35% of the time from their own restarts; Offaly returned 54%.

There were small margins all over the pitch. The Models turned over the ball 49 times (between fumbles, misplaced passes and dispossessions) to Offaly’s 43; 10 times Dunne’s men did so in their own half while Baker was pulling out what little hair he’d left for that same reason just six times. The sort of differences that can explain a two-point defeat; issues that can be addressed.

Though you would have to take conditions into account and allow for that – indeed a number of shots came up short because players struggled to get purchase on the ball. In fact when you consider that the turnover count between Tipp and Limerick on a blistering day in Thurles was 52 to 49 respectively, it would be churlish to knock the players for it.

No doubt Offaly taking the lead from three to nine points between the 46th and 52nd minutes was decisive.

Dooley had taken over before the end of the first half and was involved in eight of ten scoring attempts either side of the break – culminating in his bundled assist for Bergin’s game-breaking goal on 46 minutes.

Hindsight comes with the benefit of 20-20 vision so while Guiney might have taken a point from the final 21-yard free to reduce the gap to a point with a minute to go, he was probably right to go for it. He did the exact same thing – albeit from a rebound – against Offaly in the league to steal that result.

The Rathnure man should back himself if he has the ability and, as his second 21-yard free that found the net showed, he has the power. Just like David Redmond should be encouraged to run with the ball from midfield, as he did to earn two of those 21-yard frees and likewise in that league match for Guiney to win the game.

Offaly will be heartened by their ability ride out the late storm because too often they have been the nearly men. They haven’t been in a Leinster final since 2004 but then they hadn’t beaten Wexford in the championship for 12 years so the times could be a-changin’.

Self-confidence will grow in any case.

Taking stick: When the result doesn’t matter

As it happened: Offaly v Wexford, Leinster SHC quarter-final