Pride but no surprise for Offaly boss Kelly
Pride - that was the overriding emotion from Offaly manager Johnny Kelly after their encouraging draw with Kilkenny this afternoon.
The midlanders had two decades of equality with the Cats, beating them seven times in an 18-year period.
But the 1998 All-Ireland final was the most recent victory for Offaly coming into this Leinster round-robin clash. That still remains the case, but this battling draw also marked the first time that Kilkenny hadn't won a championship meeting between the pair since that game 28 years ago.
The headlines will go to Eoghan Cahill, whose 65 at the death earned them a share of the spoils. There was controversy in its awarding as it appeared that referee Johnny Murphy had given a wide before consulting with his umpires and changing the call.
There was a lot more to it, however, as the Faithful showed great bottle to stick with the seven-in-a-row chasing visitors throughout the game, and led by three with 20 minutes to go, and two 10 minutes later.
An extremely rare off day for TJ Reid undoubtedly made the task more difficult for Kilkenny, but they used all their reserves of belief to put themselves into a winning position at the death.
But they didn't manage to convert it into a victory, meaning they've just three points from three games. It leaves this often criticised Leinster Championship wide open with two rounds of fixtures to play.
Eoghan Cahill celebrates his equaliser at the death
And for Offaly, there's a realistic chance that they could sneak into the top three in the table, which would give them a shot at the Liam MacCarthy.
"Very proud of the boys and a good draw for us," was Kelly's summation when he spoke on RTÉ's Sunday Sport after the game.
"Swings around about there towards the end. We were lucky to get the draw out of it and probably you could look back and say maybe we were unlucky that we didn't win the game.
"So yeah, proud of the lads, proud of the performance and a big improvement from the Galway game.
"We were very flat against Galway, we had no energy. We had played really well against Dublin and were unlucky not to win that game as well.
"Maybe the game week on week affected them and this is what we're facing into now."We have to park this straight away and turn our attention to Wexford."
For the hero of the hour, Cahill, there was a feeling that they were capable of living with Kilkenny after what they had done to Dublin.
The Birr clubman hit 15 points across the course of the afternoon, with the most important of these the equaliser deep into added time.
"It went right down to the wire for us but we knew we were capable of getting a performance when we came in," he said afterwards.
"It was just (a case of) staying with them. We started very, very good and just targeted the start the second half as well.
"We knew that as long we were in that game, if it came down to the last few minutes, we'd get a chance. And thankfully we did.
"It is a massive lift," he continued, "but the beauty of this championship is we've no time to really settle on this. We're out again in six days' time against Wexford.
"If we don't get a result that day, it's still going to come down to the last day against Kildare for us.
"Obviously we'll take a lot of positives from there and we'll work on the things that we have to work on.
"But we've no choice but to knuckle straight back down tomorrow and look forward to Wexford next week."
Johnny Kelly, right, and Derek Lyng after the tull-time whistle
Kilkenny's hopes of a seventh Leinster title on the bounce are still very much in their own hands.
Victories over Kildare and Dublin in their next two games would book their spot in the final, with Galway as their likely oppositon.
But manager Derek Lyng will know that the performances against Galway and today against Offaly won't be good enough later in the summer.
"It was a rollercoaster," he told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"Near the end we did very well to take the lead. The lads showed great heart and a lot of character.
"Offaly were three points up at one stage and a lot of momentum was with them. We dug it out, got a point ahead before giving away a 65 at the end.
"It is what it is and out intentions don't change. We have to get ready now for next weekend.
"Overall, we're disappointed with our execution. We had a lot of shots, and a number of goal chances, that we didn't take.
"When you don't take the chances, you're leaving the opposition in it. Credit to Offaly, they hurled very well at times and put us under pressure."
On the 65 at the death, he added: "It was given as a wide and then they had a conversation and changed their minds.
"Obviously something was seen. It's disappointing from our end, particularly when we'd done so well to retake the lead."
