Offaly 2-17

Antrim 0-19

Offaly were more impressive winners than the scoreline suggests in Ballycastle as they gear up for an Allianz League quarter-final meeting with Tipperary next weekend.

The venue for the local derby clash will be decided by the toss of a coin tomorrow. For Antrim, today's result changes nothing as they were already resigned to a relegation playoff against Laois.

Brian Whelahan's charges were never headed after Shane Dooley scored the opening goal inside the first 20 seconds. They added three more points to lead by 1-3 to 0-0 after 12 minutes. Paul Shiels eventually opened the home side's account, only for Dooley to reply with his second goal after being set up by Joe Bergin.

The wind-assisted Saffrons battled back with scores from Conor Johnson (three) and Michael Bradley (two) before Bergin's second point left the Faithful perched on a 2-7 to 0-9 interval lead.

After last weekend's hammering by Waterford, Antrim restored some pride with their second half performance. A point from sub Ciaran Clarke cut the gap to four points, 0-16 to 2-14, with five minutes remaining, but late points from subs Brian Carroll and Cillian Kiely settled it for Offaly.

Offaly - J Dempsey; S Wynne, D Shortt, D King; C Parlon, C Egan, E Murphy; S Ryan, P Camon; E Nolan, J Mulrooney, J Bergin (0-4); S Quirke (0-1), D Currams (0-3), S Dooley (2-6, 5f). Subs: C McDonald for S Wynne, S Cleary for J Mulrooney, B Carroll (0-2, 1f) for S Dooley, C Kiely (0-1) for E Nolan, C Mulrooney for P Camon.

Antrim - C O'Connell; O McFadden, T McCann (0-1), T O Ciarain; E McAlonan, R McCambridge, P Shiels (0-2, 1f); A Graffin, S McCrory (0-1); D Hamill (0-1), C Carson (0-1), M Bradley (0-5); Conor Johnson (0-4, 2f), C McCann, S McNaughton. Subs: N McManus (0-2, 1f) for T O Ciarain, PJ O'Connell for C McCann, M Donnelly for A Graffin, E Campbell (0-1) for S McNaughton, C Clarke (0-1) for D Hamill.

Referee - A Kelly.

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