An impressive second half display saw Offaly defeat Longford by 4-16 to 1-12 in the NFL Division Four final at Croke Park this evening.

The old adage that goals win matches was never more evident as Offaly hit the back of the net on four occasions with three of them coming in the second half.

Both sides finished with 14-men as Longford's Diarmuid Masterson and Offaly's Anton Sullivan were both sent off for second yellow card offences.

The Offaly half back line of Joseph O'Connor, Johnny Moloney and Niall Darby raided forward at every opportunity and they were involved in many of Offaly's scores.

Nigel Dunne, Paul McConway, Willie Mulhall and Graham Guilfoyle all raised green flags for the Faithful County who were very impressive throughout the match, but particularly in the second half when they outscored Longford by 3-09 to 1-06.

Dunne's goal helped Offaly to a 1-07 to 0-06 lead at half time, but Longford were left to rue a number of missed chances, eight wides during the opening 35 minutes.

The second half saw Offaly start well as McConway furrowed his way forward from his full back position and blasted past Paddy Collum.

Offaly hit two more points, before Longford hit an unanswered 1-02 with substitute Shane Doyle getting their goal, in the 48 minute and that was as good as it got for them as Offaly took control, hitting two goals amongst their scores.

Longford hit eight wides in the opening 30 minutes and were generally wasteful in possession, while Offaly were far more constructive when they had the ball.

The first half saw scores hard to come by early on as both sides took time to settle, but the opening point came courtesy of a Willie Mulhall free in the second minute.

That lead was soon doubled as Dunne opened his account with a well taken point. Longford had chances early on but, Francis McGee and Ross McNerney (free) were both off target.

It took until the 11th minute for Jack Sheedy's charges to open the scoring and it was McGee who duly obliged after he had kicked his second wide of the match.

The corner forward did well to make space and fire over the bar. This was soon followed by a long range effort by Diarmuid Masterson who came forward from centre back to kick a fine point.

This left the scores at 0-02 each after 13 minutes. Longford had plenty of the ball, but couldn't convert as their wide tally continued to mount.

At the other end, Longford goalkeeper Collum was called into action as he made an excellent save from a Bernard Allen close range effort.

Longford hit a further two wides, before Anton Sullivan jinxed his way into space and slotted over a classy score for the Faithful County.

The next score went to Longford as McGee kicked a free from 45 metres straight over the bar, from off the ground, 0-03 to 0-03.

Then the all important goal came in the 22nd minute as Offaly broke forward and Mulhall played in Dunne who fired low past Collum and into the net.

Longford went on the attack straight away and it took an excellent save from Alan Mulhall to deny Brian Kavanagh an equalising goal. Mulhall dived low to his right to tip the ball around the post.

A Mickey Quinn point was sandwiched between similar scores for Allen and Niall McNamee, 1-05 to 0-04. Masterson from play again, this time off his left boot and a free from Allen left the scores 1-06 to 0-05 with 30 minutes gone.

Dunne brought his tally to 1-02 for the half with a well taken point and Kavanagh converted the free to leave the half time score 1-07 to 0-06.

Kavanagh's opening point of the second half was soon cancelled out by a brace of points from play from McNamee, before McConway got in for his goal.

Mulhall pointed a free before Doyle raised the roof of the net with a blistering shot in the 48th minute and then Kavanagh kicked two frees to leave the score 2-11 to 1-09.

That was as close as Longford could get as Offaly as Mulhall scored 1-02 and Guilfoyle got a goal with Longford's only reply being a McNerney free.

Dunne and Niall Smith pointed either side of a Kavanagh free to bring the curtain down on this one. Now the teams must prepare to meet again in three weeks time!

Offaly - A Mulhall; B Darby, P McConway (1-0), D Brady; N Darby, J Moloney, J O'Connor; G Guilfoyle (1-0), N Smith (0-1); E Carroll, N McNamee (0-4), A Sullivan (0-1); B Allen (0-2, 1f), N Dunne (1-3), W Mulhall (1-5, 0-2f). Subs: P Cunningham for E Carroll, N Bracken for B Allen, E Rigney for B Darby, C Donohue for N Darby, K Mullally for W Mulhall, J Evans for N McNamee.

Longford - P Collum; D Brady, B O'Farrell, P Foy; CP Smyth, D Masterson (0-2), E Williams; B Gilleran, K Diffley; M Quinn (0-1), P McKeon, R McEntire; R McNerney (0-1), B Kavanagh (0-6, 4f), F McGee (0-2, 1f). Subs: S Doyle (1-0) for P McKeon, C Farrelly for E Williams, A Rowan for CP Smyth, D Reynolds for F McGee, P Gill for R McNerney, F Battrim for P Foy.

Referee - N Cullen.

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