A spirited display by Longford saw them defeat Offaly by 0-16 to 0-13 in an absorbing contest at O'Connor Park Tullamore this evening.

Longford came back strongly in the second half to record a merited three-point win as they made up for their NFL final defeat to the same opposition last month.

The Midlanders started brightly, but had to deal with nine unanswered points from Offaly right up until five minutes into the second half.

Then, Jack Sheedy's charges started to grow in belief with every score that they kicked as they came from 0-12 0-05 down to secure victory.

When Colm P Smyth kicked his second point of the evening to level matters at 0-13 each in the 62nd minute, there was only going to be one winner as Offaly's confidence started to wane.

Longford started very brightly and brought a great intensity to the game as they raced into a 0-03 to 0-00 lead with Brian Kavanagh, Ronan McEntire and Barry McKeon all finding the range.

Offaly finally opened their account when Niall McNamee found his range in the 14th minute and this was followed two minutes later by the first of Nigel Dunne's points.

Colm P Smyth and Kavanagh (free) put Longford 0-05 to 0-02 up, but Offaly really stepped up a gear despite losing Niall Smith to a black card.

Graham Guilfoyle (free), Joey O'Connor, Willie Mulhall (3), Dunne and McNamee all fired over points for Offaly as they hit seven unanswered points to turn the game on its head.

As half time approached and with Offaly leading 0-09 to 0-05, Longford were handed a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty.

Michael Quinn stood up to take the penalty, but his shot was well saved by Alan Mulhall and Offaly went in at the break leading by four points.

The second half saw Offaly hit a further three unanswered points as Bernard Allen (2) and Dunne both raised white flags.

A free by McKeon was Longford's first score of the second half, but there was little to suggest that there was a comeback on the cards.

However, slowly but surely, Longford kept chipping away as Kavanagh (3), Des Reynolds (2), Peter Foy and Ross McNerney all pointed and only a Mulhall free was Offaly's sole reply as the Midlanders advance to the quarterfinal.

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

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

Referee - P O'Sullivan.

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