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On Hoganstand this morning......

Mark Young has been called up to the Offaly team for tonight's Cadbury Leinster U21FC quarter-final against Kildare at Gracefield.

The Edenderry clubman has been rewarded with a start at left corner forward after coming off the bench to score 1-2 in last week's first round win over Meath. Young replaces the suspended Paul McPadden in what is the only change to the side that beat the Royals 1-9 to 0-9.

Star forward Anton Sullivan is eligible to play, despite being sent off (on two yellow cards) in the Offaly senior team's Allianz Football League defeat to Antrim last Saturday night.

Offaly (U21FC v Kildare): G Shiels; D Hanlon, E Rigney, J Kavanagh; S Hannon, J Ledwith, J McPadden; M Brazil, D Kelly; D Hogan, A Sullivan, G Guilfoyle; T Spain, B Allen, M Young.

Hard to ignore any player that scores 1-2 off the bench, plus it's useful to have a bigger physical outlet up there as well. Bernard Allen has the heart of a lion going for ball but he has the height of house cat to go with it.

I would like to see a lot better use of the bench tonight though. There were a few players visibly tiring in the closing stages against Meath, understandably when covering for an extra man. Kildare will be a huge test of stamina as well and it's not like you wouldn't trust players like Stuart Cullen to do a job over 15/20 mins instead of 5. Plenty of other good subs there as well.

Was chatting to a few Kildare lads at dinner time and they expect to win easily tonight. They said that Kildare were training hard since well before Christmas for the u/21 and have an exceptional side this year, well we'll see tonight. I went in to PP's and took the 6/4 for Offaly to win. Best of good luck to Offaly tonight. Is it on Midlands, maybe KFM 95.3 are covering it????

I'd be careful to draw the distinction between a good Offaly team going in with a great chance against a team tipped up to win Leinster and possibly more, and saying that they represent good value at 6/4 in the bookies. That implies that they have a greater than 40% chance of winning the game, and while I'm eagerly looking forward to it, I don't know if we're that good. Kildare might be overconfident, but you can be overconfident and still be 1/2 to win a match.

If Offaly are genuinely the better team tonight, then they are entitled to be considered as one of the four or five front runners for the All Ireland. Are people really that confident?

Confident-maybe not.

but quietly confident all the same. The way Pascal sets his teams out means that the opposition are drawn into a scrap for every ball and Offaly will play (in the traditional sense) tonight like their lives depended on it. If Kildare are prepared for that and as the formbook suggests they are contenders for the All Ireland well then maybe they should win. But Offaly at home, a partisan crowd,a tightish pitch with less than brilliant floodlighting and the exchanges teak tough will quickly test the flourbags mettle.Plus i dont believe man for man, Kildare have that much better players than Offaly. Fitter and better conditioned - possibly, but better footballers? I doubt it.

6/4 is worth a definite punt in my book.

True Red wrote:6/4 is worth a definite punt in my book.

Gone to 7/4 on PP now!

Just driving home through Portarlington, great to see all the Offaly flags on display down the main street.

allstar2010 wrote:Just driving home through Portarlington, great to see all the Offaly flags on display down the main street.

Been a while since such a buzz about a match has been around! Its heart warming!

Best of luck lads! Hope Fortress Gracefield plays its part aswell!

summerindublin wrote:Was chatting to a few Kildare lads at dinner time and they expect to win easily tonight. They said that Kildare were training hard since well before Christmas for the u/21 and have an exceptional side this year, well we'll see tonight. I went in to PP's and took the 6/4 for Offaly to win. Best of good luck to Offaly tonight. Is it on Midlands, maybe KFM 95.3 are covering it????

Midlands 103 is going to be covering 3 games this evening. Turns out the games are all running simultaneously so they will be bouncing around.

Please let me know if you can find alternative Internet radio coverage. Many Thx.

Offaly 0-4
Kildare 0-2

Bernard Allen with a yellow along with 2 Kildare men.

Offaly 0-5
Kildare 0-4
Halftime

Offaly 0-7
Kildare 0-5
10 Minutes gone in the second half

lots of cards being handed out to both teams...

Dublin 2-21 Laois 0-4 !!!
Wasters beat Carlow 0-11 to 0-3
Louth beat Longford 3-6 to 1-10, having led something like 3-6 to 0-5.

8 points to 7 up in injury time, would be a massive win if they can hang on!!!

Offaly 0-8
Kildare 0-7

FINAL

YESSSS!!!!!!!