Francis Forde says St. Rynagh's answered their critics when claiming their first Offaly SHC title in 23 years yesterday.

The Banagher men withstood a second half comeback by arch-rivals Birr at O'Connor Park to hold on for a 2-16 to 1-15 victory and end a run of eight county final defeats since their last success in 1993.

"We definitely did it the hard way," the Rynagh's manager said.

"Our character has been questioned over the last couple of years and the way the game went today, it was tested more than ever. We kept finding something, just getting that score or two to keep us ahead.

"A few things have been said about this team and if we're being honest, until they answered that, they weren't going to be worthy champions."

Forde's Birr counterpart Paddy Kiwan was unhappy with the performance of All-Ireland final referee Brian Gavin.

"I hate cribbing, but I'm disgusted with Brian Gavin. I thought he was very hard on us today. They were getting frees much softer than we were.

"He goes out to ref an inter-county game and he lets everything run - he comes into a club game and if you touch a fella it's a free. So where's the happy medium?" the former Offaly star asked.

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