Laois manager Justin McNulty says that while the sending off of James Kelly damaged his side, they had not been playing well regardless.
The Armagh native was speaking after Laois lost out to Offaly by eight points last night.
The crucial moment in the game came around the 20th minute when Kelly was sent off for an incident involving Dylan Hyland.
McNulty said: “It’s one of those games where things didn’t go our way. Obviously the sending off was pivotal, but we hadn’t been firing up to that point.
“We were beginning to get to grips with the game and that was a hammer blow for us.
“But the fellas fought back valiantly till half-time and we looked to be worrying them. Then after half-time we got a score to go ahead, then a couple of big plays, they got goals and that killed us off really.
We were proud at half-time about how the fellas had fought back and we got ourselves into a good position to really worry them, but big plays cost us in the second half and we need to learn from that.
“Offaly were probably a little bit more streetwise than us throughout the game and were fully deserving of the victory.
“We’ve got to learn from that and decide now how we’re going to bounce back.
I’ll let people make up their own minds about the red card, I haven’t seen it properly myself, I’ll let viewers and fans make up their own mind.”
Regardless, McNulty said he was proud of how his team responded to going a man down.
He said: “The sending off no doubt was pivotal in the performance, and fellas had to dig deep to be level at half-time.
“But Offaly were more streetwise, they demonstrated that there is a chasm between Division Three and Division Four. They fully deserved their victory.
“We’ve got to learn from it, we didn’t do ourselves justice on the evening, we didn’t achieve any of our targets, and fellas know that. They’re hurt by that and upset by that.
“But after the match, as I said to them, they still held themselves with dignity and grace on the pitch, they interacted with the young people.
“Our players are still heroes to those young people, who were looking up with starry eyes to our players.
“That’s a big responsibility for our players and I told them to consider that, and see where that brings them next, how do heroes behave.”
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