Leitrim’s drastic-looking decision to concede a walkover and Offaly’s crucial win over Kildare in Tullamore were the big talking points when round six of Division Three of the National Football League took place at the weekend.
The big derby clash in Tullamore saw Offaly win by 2-17 to 0-17, defeating Kildare in a competitive fixture for the first time since 2006.
Ahead by 0-11 to 0-10 at half-time, Offaly looked in trouble when Kildare moved 0-14 to 0-12 ahead after 48 minutes but goals from Rory Egan and Dylan Hyland (a penalty) saw them win.
It means that Offaly are now top of the table on 10 points with a trip to Clare to come next Sunday. Kildare and Clare are on eight points, but even if Kildare beat Antrim next Sunday and Clare win, the odds favour Offaly and Kildare going up.
Scoring difference will come into play if this happens and Kildare will definitely go up while Offaly have to avoid a defeat by 11 points or more to be promoted.
The announcement on Saturday that Leitrim had decided to concede a walkover to Fermanagh has led to considerable criticism, both locally and among the other counties in the division – though it doesn’t affect the race at the top as all three teams have played Leitrim and scoring difference will still count from those games.
Leitrim had ran promotion-seeking Offaly to the wire in their previous game, giving their best performance of the league by a mile and their concession to Fermanagh came as a shock, as well as relegating them to Division 4.
Insisting that their reasons were “genuine”, Leitrim GAA cited unavailability of players due to injury and other factors while they weren’t willing to select U20 players ahead of this week’s Connacht championship clash with Galway.
On Saturday, Clare kept their promotion hopes very much on track with a good 2-22 to 1-21 win over Laois in O’Moore Park. Laois had done well to get into the promotion chase after a poor first round defeat by Offaly but this loss ended their ambitions.
Laois were in a very strong position when leading by 1-13 to 1-7 at half-time but Clare turned things around spectacularly in a high-scoring second half.
Laois’s defeat means that the promotion race is a three-way battle between Kildare, Offaly and Clare. In the big relegation battle in Belfast’s Corrigan Park, Sligo recorded a crucial 1-18 to 1-15 win over Antrim and now look set to stay up.
They are on five points, one ahead of Antrim. Sligo are at home to Leitrim next weekend, if the latter fulfil that fixture, while with Kildare having to win to go up, Antrim face a daunting trip to Newbridge.
