Offaly's failure to break even at midfield had a crucial bearing on their defeat to Wexford, according to manager Brian Whelahan.

Speaking after the Faithful's first home defeat to the Model County in 42 years, Whelahan lamented: "We started brightly enough, but I felt after 15 or 20 minutes they got a grip around the middle of the field.

"They were first to the breaking ball, something we were better at last Saturday night. They started to win a lot the battles around the middle sector."

The Birr legend was also disappointed to lose teenager Cillian Kiely to a straight red card after he clashed with Kevin Foley in the closing stages.

"The sending off was definitely a factor coming into the last seven or eight minutes," he said.

"We had a lot of tired bodies out on the field trying to make up ground. We still remained very positive with regard to the type of game we wanted to play. But obviously, when we went down to 14 men, it was going to be very tough."

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