Mark Barry's last-gasp penalty sends Wicklow wild as Laois shock Offaly

The Irish Sun

2 days ago

Mark Barry was the toast of both Laois and Wicklow last night after his last-gasp penalty gave Laois a dramatic 3-18 to 3-16 win over Offaly.
The result which meant that Wicklow secured top spot in Group Two of the Tailteann cup, and with it a home quarter-final.
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Mark Barry and Laois shocked Offaly in the Tailteann Cup on Saturday
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Offaly's were favourites heading into the clash and were rocked by two Damon Larkin goals
Offaly were the favourites going into the game in Newbridge but they took a while to use the breeze in the first half, and were rocked by two Damon Larkin goals, the second a stunning strike.
Cillian Bourke, soon to start his Leaving Cert, was Offaly's star man and he got the goal that put the Faithful 1-10 to 2-6 ahead at the break.
But it felt like they needed more as Laois fired over two-pointers from Killian Roche and Niall Corbet to take the lead.
Keith O'Neill set up Jordan Hayes for a fine goal midway through the second half but Laois again took control, with Brian Byrne and Ronan Coffey hitting points to nudge them 2-17 to 2-15 in front.
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After just joining the action with under ten minutes to play, Ruairí McNamee found the time to be both Offaly's hero and villain in a dramatic finale.
Bourke set him up for a goal with three minutes to play and after Patrick O'Sullivan levelled the game, the Rhode man popped up again in the first minute of stoppage time with a point.
His good work was undone however as he pushed Patrick O'Sullivan in the square, and up stepped Barry to slam the penalty to the net to win the game.
Ironically a point and a draw would still have left Laois as a third-placed team, it was only Wicklow who benefited from Barry going for broke.
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The Garden County beat Waterford by 3-29 to 0-21, giving them a three-point advantage over Offaly at the top of the table on scoring difference, but at half-time in Wexford Park they were five points adrift and would have taken any win at all.
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Jason Curry hit an incredible 0-15 in total and he was on fire in the first half, helping Waterford to lead by 0-16 to 0-6 at one stage.
A goal from Eoin Darcy in the last minute of the first half made Wicklow's task a lot more manageable however and while the first four points of the second half were shared equally.
Oisín McConville's men outscored Waterford by 2-19 to 0-3 from there.
Oisín McGraynor (0-6) and Dean Healy (1-4) led the scoring with Joe Prendergast adding the other Wicklow goal.
The other game yesterday was in Group 3 in Portlaoise where Limerick pulled off a minor shock, edging out Westmeath by 0-19 to 0-18 to take that top spot and force Westmeath to host a preliminary quarter-final next weekend.
Westmeath's Luke Loughlin (0-7) and James Naughton (0-8) did their usual job of leading the scoring in a contest where Limerick took a two-point lead into the start of the second half and then went on a run of four points in a row to take control of proceedings by the 50th minute.
Instead Westmeath took over to rattle off seven in a row, with Loughlin and Ronan Wallace hitting two each to seemingly set up the midlanders for a third consecutive win.
They couldn't see it out however as Naughton, Robbie Childs and Josh Ryan pointed to nudge Limerick a point in front.
Loughlin levelled matters in the second minute of stoppage time, and Emmet Rigter popped up to score his third of the match and the crucial winner with the last attack.