Longford come from seven points down to stun Offaly

Offaly’s quest for a first Leinster SFC victory in eight years continues after neighbours Longford turned them over by 0-16 to 0-13 in an exciting contest at O’Connor Park in Tullamore.

The Faithful County looked good for their first provincial championship win since 2007 when they led by seven points with just 24 minutes remaining.

But Longford, beaten in the Division Four league final by Offaly just a few weeks ago, rallied superbly to repeat last season’s success over the home side and book a Croke Park date against Dublin on May 31.

Longford manager Jack Sheedy will bring his side to play his native county with their confidence levels boosted after they showed good character to come from behind and seal a good win.

Such an outcome did not seem likely in the opening quarter as Pat Flanagan, taking charge of his native county in a championship for the first time, struggled to match Longford’s intensity and fell 0-4 to 0-2 behind.

The contest was notable for a lot of heavy tackling between local rivals meeting for the third in recent months and Offaly lost midfielder Niall Smith to a black card.

But Offaly continued to have an edge and they opened up an interval lead of 0-9 to 0-5, kicking six points in as many minutes in their best spell of the match.

Niall McNamee got a trademark effort and Willie Mulhall landed a couple of frees as they made the most of wind advantage.

But the hosts knew that four points might not be enough against the elements and they were fortunate not to have even less of an advantage, goalkeeper Alan Mulhall saving a Michael Quinn penalty just before the break.

Longford, whose early advantage had largely come from the efforts of Brian Kavanagh, Ronan McEntire and Barry McKeon, knew they were going to need to produce something special when Bernard Allen kicked two good points for Offaly after the restart and then Nigel Dunne put them seven in front.

Flanagan and his men must have been thinking of a date with the Dubs at that stage but Longford got their act together and took over.

Barry McKeon set the comeback in motion when he got their first score in 24 minutes with a good free, and then Kavanagh kicked two in a row to reduce the margin to four points.

Teenager Dessie Reynolds, one of several Longford substitutes to impress, cut the deficit to a goal with an excellent point after 54 minutes.

Longford continued to pile on the pressure and hit the front in the closing stages as Kavanagh continued to find the range and Reynolds also added a second as they pushed three in front.

Offaly almost forced a draw in the closing minutes but Longford goalkeeper Paddy Collum did well to keep out a fisted effort from Conor McNamee at the death.

Longford: P Collum; D Brady, B O'Farrell, C Farrelly; C P Smyth (0-2), B Gilleran, D Masterson (0-1); M Quinn, K Diffley; S Doyle, F McGee, R McEntire (0-1); B McKeon (0-2, 1f), B Kavanagh (0-5, 3f), R Connor.

Substsitutes: D Reynolds (0-2) for McGee (34), R McNerney (0-2, 1f) for Doyle (35), P Foy (0-1) for Connor (54), L Connerton for McKeon (60).

Offaly: A Mulhall; B Darby, P McConway, D Brady; N Darby, J Moloney, J O'Connor (0-1); G Guilfoyle (0-1f), N Smith; E Carroll, N McNamee (0-2), A Sullivan; W Mulhall (0-4f), N Dunne (0-3), B Allen (0-2, 1f).

Substitutes: C McNamee for Smith (22), J Ledwith for McConway (54), P Cunningham for Allen (58), C O’Donoghue for Carroll (68), N Bracken for Dunne (68).

Referee: P O’Sullivan (Kerry).