Cork 4-25; Offaly 3-19
There was a sense of defeat in victory for Cork and victory in defeat for Offaly after the newly crowned Joe McDonagh Cup winners managed to keep the Rebel County to single digits when going under in Tullamore on Saturday.
After the highs of that McDonagh win and the U20s success, the fear in Offaly last week was that much of what was built up in those victories would be wiped should Cork emerge victors by 20 or 30 points.
At one point near the end they were 15 points up but while Offaly missed two clear cut goal chances in the first half, they found the back of the net twice in the last three minutes of play to put a truly respectable look on the final scoreline.
Cork Manager Pat Ryan was unhappy overall with his team’s performance but gave Offaly a lot of praise for what they achieved both earlier in the season and on the day against his side.
Ultimately, they can thank the likes of Patrick Horgan for guiding them to the quarter-final proper where they will meet Dublin this weekend. Hoggie hit 1-10 in front of over 16,000 fans while Offaly fans gave huge backing to their side and the stoppage-time goals from Jack Clancy and Killian Sampson gave them a spring in their step as they left the ground.
Cork: P Collins; S O’Donoghue, E Downey, N O’Leary (0-1); T O’Mahony, R Downey, M Coleman; C Joyce, D Fitzgibbon (0-3); D Dalton (0-4, 0-1f), S Barrett (1-4), C Lehane (0-1); P Horgan (1-10, 0-7f, 0-2 65s), A Connolly, B Hayes (1-1) Subs: S Kingston (0-1) for Connolly (44), L Meade for Barrett (55), P Power for Lehane (63), J O’Connor for Hayes (64), R O’Flynn (1-0) for Dalton (67).
Offaly: M Troy; B Conneely, C Burke, C King; D Shirley, C Kiely (0-1), D King (0-1); J Sampson (0-1), R Ravenhill; K Sampson (1-3), D Bourke (0-2), O Kelly (1-0); E Cahill (0-5, 0-4f), B Duignan (0-5, 0-3f), C Mitchell (0-1) Subs: E Kelly for Cahill (h-t), J Clancy (1-0) for Ravenhill (47), S Bourke for O Kelly (61), D Maher for Kiely (64), L Watkins for D Bourke (70).
Wexford 0-32; Laois 0-20
Wexford were always going to win this game but typical Wexford, they made it hard on themselves in patches at O'Moore Park on Saturday.
The two things that shone for them was the huge following who came out in numbers to support Keith Rossiter’s new-look team and old hand Lee Chin, who was the Model main man once again after scoring 12 points in the game. He was backed up by Conor McDonald who showed up well inside and was responsible for four points over the course of the 70 minutes.
Wexford now will have to shape up to Clare and their record at quarter-final level is not good. They will go into the game on Saturday as outsiders but have the capabilities to put it up to any team on their day.
Wexford: M Fanning; S Reck, C Foley, E Ryan; S Donohoe (0-1), D Reck (0-1), M O'Hanlon; C Hearne (0-13), T Kinsella (0-1); Li Óg McGovern (0-3), Lee Chin (0-11, 0-5f, 0-2 ‘65s), C McGuckin; C Byrne (0-3), C McDonald (0-5), R O’Connor (0-1) Subs: C Dunbar Byrne (0-1), for Kinsella (45), C Dunbar for Byrne (50), K Foley for Chin (56), S Casey (0-2f) for McGovern (67), D Carley for McDonald (70).
Laois: E Rowland; D Conway, R Mullaney(0-1), D Hartnett; I Shanahan, P Delaney, TCuddy; Ai Corby (0-1), D Dooley; G Lynch, P Purcell, A Dunphy (0-15 0-12f, 0-1 ‘65); J Quinlan, P Maher (0-2), T Keyes Subs: F C-Fennell for Conway (20, inj), Co Comerford (0-1) for Lynch (32), M Phelan for Maher (51), R King for Quinlan (57), J Lennon for Corby (62).
