Comfortable for Offaly is seeing off Meath

Offaly got their Joe McDonagh Cup campaign off the mark with a routine win over Meath in Tullamore on Saturday afternoon.

Having lost to Antrim in their first game, Offaly had to win and they did so with a stuttering, unconvincing display and Michael Fennelly has a lot of work to do if Offaly are to get back into the top tier.

It was a very mixed bag by Offaly at times. They took some excellent scores but were also guilty of slipping into cruise control, not keeping their foot to the pedal.

Offaly had first use of a strong wind in the first half and it took them a few minutes to settle down. Meath led twice in the opening few minutes before Offaly got in front for the first time with points from Jason Sampson and Adrian Cleary. Jack Regan, who got eight of Meath's first half points from frees, made it 0-4 to 0-03 but Offaly then got 1-04 without reply with David Nally getting the goal in the 16th minute.

That gave Offaly a 1-06 to 0-03 lead. Leon Fox got in for a soft 23rd minute goal as Offaly led by 2-08 to 0-04. They were 2-11 to 0-5 ahead after 27 minutes and should have pulled out of sight from here.

Instead, they got a bit sloppy, conceding some carelss frees and Regan got five frees as Meath got the gap back to 2-14 to 0-10 at half time.

Nearly all of the good hurling was played in the first half. The second half got very scrappy, very disjointed and the entertainment levels dipped considerably for the spectators.

Meath's goose had been cooked when full back Shane Brennan was red carded for his role in an unnecessary melee just after the restart. With referee Michael Kennedy blowing for well in excess of ten illegal hand passes, it was a very stop-start affair and neither side could find any momentum.

As the game wore on