Johnny Kelly was a happy man after leading Offaly to their first All-Ireland SHC quarter-final appearance since 2003.

After sinking to the depths of the Christy Ring Cup a few years ago, the Faithful are rising quickly again and will face the Munster SHC final runners-up (either Limerick or Cork) after easing to a 1-29 to 0-15 victory over Kildare in their last Leinster SHC round-robin fixture.

That result in Newbridge, coupled with Dublin’s win over Kilkenny in Parnell Park, saw the midlanders sensationally eliminate the once-mighty Cats from the Liam MacCarthy Cup race.

“We won’t get too excited about it,” the Faithful County manager told the Offaly GAA Facebook page.

“It was a great win here today. Obviously, we needed the result to go our way in the other game and thankfully that happened. It extends our season by another four weeks at a minimum so what we need to do now is assess where we’re at and look forward to four weeks’ time against the Munster runners-up.

“We elected to play into the breeze in the first half and see where we were at half-time. Three points up (0-13 to 0-10) at half-time, it was okay but we really needed to push on and obviously the sending off (of Kildare’s Cathal McCabe) had a big bearing on the game. In the past, we mightn’t have handled that sending off well, but the boys have learned a lot over the last few years and controlled that situation well.”

The Portumna man added: “We’re just thrilled to be in an All-Ireland quarter-final. I think we deserve it over the course of the campaign. We only lost once to Galway which was disappointing because we didn’t show up with any energy or intent.

“When you only lose one game in this Championship, it’s only right and fitting that we get there, albeit by the skin of our teeth.”

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