Offaly 1-20 Dublin 1-14 A fine Neville Coughlan goal seven minutes from time helped leg-weary Offaly to dispose of the challenge of a gritty Dublin side in an entertaining All-Ireland SHC qualifier at sunny Croke Park. Although never actually managing to fire on all cylinders the Faithful County showed just a tad more efficiency in front of goal and a bit more guile and craft in the close exchanges to keep their noses in front for most of the match. In fact in a match in which the scores were level on three occasions, the Dubs only managed to lead just once over the 70-minutes plus when an otherwise quiet Conal Keaney pointed just a couple of minutes after the restart. Earlier in the first half, the Metropolitans had worked tirelessly to keep the shackles on their vaunted opponents who recorded eight wides in the opening moiety. However, once again Dublin's dependency on ace marksman Tomas McGrane was telling. In contrast the Offalymen showed a much greater division of labour in the last third of the field despite being held 0-9 to 0-9 at the interval. It was neck and neck throughout the first half with Tomas McGrane's second point of the afternoon making it 0-2 apiece after eight minutes. Offaly were unusually sluggish but they hit a rare rich vein of form inside three minutes when Brian Carroll, Rory Hannify and Barry Whelehan all pointed to give the match favourites some breathing space. But another point for McGrane, his sixth of the half, left just two points between the sides once again with 22 minutes gone. Just moments later sharpshooter McGrane had a goal chance but preferred to take his point to leave Offaly defending a 0-7 to 0-6 lead with 11 minutes left in the half. Dublin, starting out with the same line-out which started last time out against Kilkenny, kept plugging away and although Damian Murray and Brian Carroll again got on the scoresheet to stretch Offaly's lead, Dublin finished the half the stronger of the two teams and points by Kevin Flynn and Shane Martin tied the scores at the break. Conal Keaney's double-quick point on the restart edged Dublin ahead for the first time in the match but Barry Whelehan's third point of the game curtailed any Dubs' thoughts of extending their advantage. Dublin had two chances of grabbing a crucial goal in the opening ten minutes of the second half but in each case Tomas McGrane failed to net - firstly when he fired his shot low and wide and, secondly, when his shot in the 9th minute was brillantly saved by Offaly 'keeper Brian Mullins. Offaly then upped a gear as the three-quarter mark arrived with points by Damian Murray and Brian Carroll and with 13 minutes of the half gone, Offaly led by 0-15 to 0-11. Dublin grabbed a liveline in the 24th minute when schoolboy Michael Carton banged home a goal to cut Offaly's lead to just three points, 0-19 to 1-13. Dublin then made it a two point game when the aforementioned Carton pointed on the run. However try as they did the sky blues couldn't get any closer to their opponents thereafter with Neville Coughlan's 28th minute goal putting the icing on the cake for the Faithful County. Tweet

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