An Offaly good show; MATCH QUOTES FROM CROKE PARK.

ONCE more Offaly have succeeded in turning tradition on its head.

And the man chiefly responsible for it all - Tommy Lyons - was once again in jubilant form.

The Faithful County had just earned their first ever league title and Lyons was a bundle of sheer joy in the winners' dressing room afterwards.

"There is great euphoria about this team," he remarked. "It's fantastic the way we did it. We set out our stall to play football from the very start.

"We won a Leinster title playing football the right way and we now have a League title also.

"I'm not on a crusade or anything but this is the way I've always wanted it."

And with a championship clash with Meath coming up in less than a month's time, Lyons sounded a word of warning.

"This means nothing compared to the May 24 game. In the bigger picture, it's really irrelevant.

"Come D-day, it will just increase Meath's will to beat us. We have some savage work to do so that's next for us." It was a special day however for the players and Lyons admitted it was a great feeling.

"It will be great for the lads to look back on in ten years. Being the first team to win a national league title is something special." That title almost looked in doubt when Derry staged a blistering second- half comeback. from five points down they hauled themselves back to level the game only for Offaly to turn on the style at the end. Lyons admitted that he always knew it was going to be close.

"They were always going to come back at us. I thought we were twice the team they were in the first-half and we should have been seven or eight points ahead at half-time. "We have a stronger team than last year and I thought we played great football in the wet conditions.

"You don't come out of division four without being a good football team. The lads have also developed from last year so I knew we had it in us."

After returning early from his honeymoon Captain Finbar Cullen was overjoyed. "It's a great day of the county. We know the championship is still what really matter but this was a sweet success." John Ryan was another who admitted it was a special day Offaly's dual star slotted in to the troublesome back row and played it like an old pro. "I'm absolutely thrilled," he said. "It's unbelievable. I was just happy to get in at the start and it worked out well for us.

"They started coming at us in threes or fours in the second-half but I knew we would be okay as long as we didn't give away stupid frees." Half-back John Kenny was another delighted with his county's historic victory.

"The league is a huge bonus but we know that even after today we will be judged on how we performed in the championship."

For the losers, Joe Brolly was down but certainly not out. on a wet day he said that the game was something of a lottery.

"The conditions were treacherous. I don't want to make excuses but it was so hard to play out there.

"I thought we had it as the game wore on. Realistically, with ten minutes to go Derry should have finished them off," he added.

"There's a romantic notion surrounding Offaly that they won't lay a hand on you. They are a team for the purists but they make it a lot harder than you think. The corner-backs were very tight and I think the referee let them away at times. Overall I thought the ref made some very bad decisions."

While Derry were beaten he said that they are looking forward to their upcoming championship clash with Monaghan.

"We were using this as a platform. I have three league medals already but very little to show for that relative to the championship," said Brolly.