N.Y. GAA Offaly much too strong for Armagh

By Jack Flynn

Offaly 0-12, Armagh 0-1

As the gray clouds rolled in and the rain began to fall at Gaelic Park on Sunday, a storm of a different sort was brewing on the pitch.

Offaly reigned all over Armagh’s parade, scoring 10 second-half points and playing tremendous defense on their way to a dominating 0-12 to 0-1 win in Div. 2 Senior football.

Perhaps the loneliest man for Offaly was goalkeeper Kieran Farrelly, who spent most of the match watching his teammates completely shut down the Armagh attack.

“I didn’t have a whole lot to do,” Farrelly said. “There were just one or two balls and that was it.”

Farrelly did make a brilliant save early in the match on Armagh’s Breslin, keeping the match scoreless.

Besides Farrelly’s stop on Breslin, the first half was for the most part dreadful to watch. Neither side could conjure up any hint of an offensive attack, trading miscues.

Offaly finally broke through and took the lead as John Hanlon put a ball over the crossbar for the first point of the match. David Reynolds, after taking several unsuccessful frees, cemented a nice feed from Hanlon to score the only other point of a forgettable first half.

“It was pretty bad in the first half,” Farrelly said, “but in the second half we just took over the game.”

Did they ever? Declan Carroll and Brendan Lynch scored a point apiece early in the second half to give Offaly the 0-4 to 0-0 advantage. Finally, after nearly 40 minutes of trying, Paul Butler scored Armagh’s first point. It would be their only tally of the day.

Offaly ran off a string of eight straight points, including four from Reynolds to close out the match. Although they could not put a goal past Armagh keeper Dermot Mulholland, it hardly mattered.

Meanwhile, on the defensive end, Offaly continued to dominate all over the pitch. When it was all over, Offaly had picked up two points and, according to Farrelly, showed what they were made of.

“We showed our true colors in the second half,” Offaly’s goalkeeper said. “Next time, hopefully, we’ll show that in a full game.

Offaly scorers: Reynolds 0-5, Nolan 0-2, Hanlon, Carroll, Lynch, Leary and Kernaghan 0-1.

Armagh: Butler 0-1.