Offaly minor manager Declan McGovern has admitted that the poor start his side conceded during last Sunday's meeting with Dublin cost them a place in this year's Leinster MFC final. The young Faithful men forced extra-time after trailing 0-7 to 0-0 with 20 minutes gone in the game, but the concession of five goals, despite being a man up, proved their ultimate undoing. "You'd have to imagine that we wouldn't have gone to extra-time if we hadn't gone seven points down at the start," said McGovern. "If you give a team a head start it's not just on the board but it's in the head as well. Dublin were oozing confidence at that stage but it was a great fight back from our lads to get level early in the second-half. Probably the sending off of the Dublin player didn't help us as much as it should as there was a certain hesitancy for the Dublin goal in the second-half. I don't think that would have happened if we hadn't had the extra man there." The Offaly boss was also able to pin-point the exact moment when he knew his side's chances of a dream provincial final were over. "The third last of the goals effectively finished the game. They were still full of running and they were dropping men behind the ball so it was going to be impossible for us to get back at that stage with so little time left," he added. Tweet

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