DCU 0-15 Offaly 1-7:Offaly made an undignified exit from the O'Byrne Cup in front of their own supporters, who were few in numbers, when losing their quarter-final against Dublin City University at O'Connor Park, Tullamore, yesterday.
For the second week in succession Offaly faced student opposition, and they found their Dublin visitors to be a far more formidable force than the Athlone IT side which they had crushed by 30 points the previous week.
In a lacklustre game the students proved by far the more cohesive side once they recovered from a sluggish start during which both sides failed to round off promising attacks. Indeed, it was Offaly who made the more promising start, with a pointed free by Niall McNamee inside the first minute, followed by a fine point from play by John O'Hara.
The visitors had to wait until the 18th minute before opening their account through Shane Smith, and although this was offset by O'Hara's second white flag this proved to be Offaly's final score of the first half.
Although playing their second game in four days DCU showed no ill-effects of their win against Louth last Thursday night.
Their early scoring attempts consistently dropped short of the target but once they adjusted their sights their forwards reeled off an unbroken sequence of six points to establish a 0-7 to 0-3 interval lead.
The pattern remained largely unchanged on the resumption, with the visitors combining more effectively and maintaining a lead that fluctuated between three and five points until a late hat-trick of points from Conor Mortimer, Seanie Johnston and substitute Craig Rodgers stretched their cushion to 0-14 to 0-7.
With six minutes remaining Offaly substitute Alan Mulhall took the bleak appearance off the scoreboard when put through by Ken Casey to beat the outstanding Philip Brogan for the game's only goal.
It came too late to spark a home revival, and on this performance manager Pat Roe has a number of problems to solve before the start of the National Football League on February 3rd.
DCU: P Brogan; P Andrews, D Sheridan, D Mooney; C Guckin, K Nolan, M McElhinney; F O'Reilly, R Flanagan; D Keenan, S Smith (0-1), C Cregg (0-1); S Johnston (0-5), C Mortimer (0-5), D Kelly (0-2). Subs: B Sheridan for O'Reilly, W Mulhall for McElhinney, C Rodgers (0-1) for Sheridan, B O'Reilly for Guckin, P Byrne for Johnston.
OFFALY: P Kelly; G. Rafferty, C Evans, J Keane; B Darby, P Kellaghan, N Grennan; A McNamee, N Smith; K Casey, J O'Hara (0-4), D Egan; T Deehan, J Reynolds (0-1), N McNamee (0-2). Subs: C McManus for Egan, N Kelly for Smith, A Mulhall (1-0) for Deehan, S Sullivan for Grennan.
Referee: B. O'Shea (Dublin).
