Leinster Senior Hurling Championship

KILKENNY 2-19 OFFALY 1-13

By Brian Lowry at Nowlan Park

Kilkenny made it two wins from two in Nowlan Park as they came out the right side of a tough encounter with Offaly.

While there was nine points in it in the end, just three points separated the sides with seven minutes to go as a goal from Joe Bergin had brought Offaly back to life.

However, a minute later Liam Blanchfield hit Kilkenny’s second goal to put them back into a comfortable position as they saw out the game.

Brian Cody’s men hit a massive 22 wides over the course of the 70 minutes and while they will be happy to get the points, they won’t be happy with their overall performance.

Kilkenny were extremely wasteful in the early stages while both sides coughed up goal chances. The Cats amassed six wides in the opening 15 minutes as Offaly started well and had a 0-3 to 0-2 lead at that juncture.

Kilkenny than began to find their stride with points from John Donnelly and TJ Reid’s first point of the game propelling them into a 0-5 to 0-3 lead just shy of 20 minutes.

Offaly were still well in the game and tagging on points from the lively Joe Bergin and Pat Camon but 10 minutes before half-time, Kilkenny struck for goal with TJ Reid rifling in a half chance beyond Eoghan Cahill to make it 1-6 to 0-5.

Luke Scanlon fired over four points in the opening 35 minutes and although Shane Dooley rattled off a few frees, Kilkenny had a decent six lead at the break -1-10 to 0-7 - with TJ Reid landing the last two points of the half.

While the opening half had been a high octane affair, the second half was a more subdued affair with Kilkenny easing into a 1-14 to 0-8 lead by the 42nd minute.

While others might have folded, Offaly kept plugging away with Shane Dooley and Joe Bergin leading the way.

Kilkenny still looked comfortable with a 1-16 to 0-11 lead on 56 minutes but a superb overhead pass from Shane Dooley allowed Joe Bergin to run in and find the net for the Offaly men to bring it back to a five point game.

Offaly got it back to three points but Kilkenny then rattled off 1-2 in three minutes with Blanchfield taking a pass from John Donnelly to fire to the net as Kilkenny got the insurance scores to put them 2-18  to 1-13 ahead with five minutes to play.

The final score of the game was left to Martin Keoghan as Kilkenny got the job done ahead of their trip to Salthill next Sunday.

Scorers for Kilkenny: TJ Reid 1-5 (0-4 frees), Liam Blanchfield 1-2, Luke Scanlon 0-4, Martin Keoghan, John Donnelly, Colin Fennelly 0-2 each, Richie Leahy and Eoin Murphy (free) 0-1 each.

**Scorers for Offaly: **Joe Bergin 1-3, Shane Dooley 0-5 (0-4 frees), Shane Kinsella 0-2, Pat Camon, Colin Egan and Oisin Kelly 0-1 each.

**KILKENNY: **Eoin Murphy; Joey Holden, Padraig Walsh, Paddy Deegan; Conor Delaney, Cillian Buckley, Paul Murphy; Conor Fogarty, Lester Ryan; Martin Keoghan, TJ Reid, Richie Leahy; John Donnelly, Liam Blanchfield, Luke Scanlon. Subs: Colin Fennelly for Conor Fogarty (41), Conor Browne for Lester Ryan (53), Ger Aylward for Luke Scanlon (54), Conor O’Shea for Richie Leahy (70).

OFFALY: Eoghan Cahill; Tom Spain, Dermot Shortt, Ben Conneely; Damien Egan, Pat Camon, David O’Toole-Greene; Shane Kinsella, David King; Oisin Kelly, Colin Egan, Paddy Murphy, Dan Currams, Joe Bergin, Shane Dooley. Subs: Conor Mahon (for Paddy Murphy (30), Paddy Delaney for Tom Spain (H/T), Ronan Hughes for Dan Currams (H/T), Sean Ryan for Colin Egan (53), Tommy Geraghty for Shane Kinsella (69).

Referee: James Owens (Wexford)