It was far from lovely when the Tipperary footballers played Leitrim
The season ends on a disappointing note for the Premier County
Leitrim 3-9 Tipperary 0-10
Tipperary senior footballers’ season of team re-building came to a very disappointing conclusion at a sunny and windswept TEG Cusack Park, Mullingar last Sunday afternoon when they were beaten by Leitrim in their third and final Tailteann Cup group game. And Philly Ryan’s charges can have no real complaints about their eight-point margin of defeat by an improving Leitrim team, who earlier this year were unable to fulfil a Division 3 league fixture against Fermanagh before being relegated to Division 4.
Despite their deserved victory, Leitrim's season has also ended because of their very heavy first round defeat by Kildare in Newbridge. Leitrim’s eight-point victory margin just wasn’t enough for them to progress, as they were denied by Antrim on a superior points difference for the third place qualification berth.
This was a clash between two pointless teams who were hoping for some late reward in knockout Tailteann Cup qualification, and so there was never any real possibility of a real spectacle or a classic. Both teams are also undergoing a huge transition and re-building process in recent months but there was also a faint hope that a victory might prolong their championship season, although Leitrim needed a much greater margin of victory than Tipperary, who had given a decent first round performance against Sligo before their heavy home defeat by Kildare in Clonmel in the previous round.
After Steven O’Brien lost the throw-in to his opposite number Barry McNulty, Leitrim went immediately on the offensive. They were dominating possession and playing all the football early in the opening quarter before Cian Smith with a two-pointer opened the scoring in the seventh minute. Just before that Ben Guckian got inside the Tipperary defence, only for Manus McFadden to produce a goal-saving block, which resulted in the corner back leaving the field to be replaced temporarily for eight minutes by Jason Madigan.
Leitrim got on the scoreboard in the 16th minute when corner forward Ben Guckian played a one-two with McGloin before slipping the ball to Jack Flynn. Although goalkeeper Shane Ryan got a solid touch to Flynn’s shot, unfortunately for Tipperary it bounced in off the crossbar.
Four minutes later a Steven O’Brien mark saw him quickly transfer the ball to corner back Emmet Moloney, who raced upfield to kick a neat solo point and tie the scores. Amazingly, that point was also Tipperary’s last score of a very poor first half for them.
After a Ben Guckian point edged Leitrim back in front in the 22nd minute, Tipperary were rocked by another Leitrim goal from the busy Tom Prior five minutes later to put Tipperary in serious trouble. Directly from a Leitrim long range free from goalkeeper Daire O’Shea to Barry McNulty on the run, a quick pass to Prior saw him confidently place the ball out of Shane Ryan’s reach in the bottom right hand corner of the net.
When Barry McNulty was fouled, the same player opened up a five-point lead. Tipperary also saw a goalline clearance from Prior deny Cian Smith a desperately-needed goal just before the half-time whistle, when the score was Leitrim 2-2 Tipperary 0-3.
Things could only get better for Tipperary in the second half, as the sides shared the first four points after the resumption, with Daithí Hogan and Smith scores sandwiching those from Riordan O’Rourke and Flynn.
Tipperary also had to take risks, especially with Leitrim’s pacy counter-attacks. A brace of points from Guckian and Riordan O’Rourke were cancelled out by a superb two-point free from Cian Smith after 55 minutes. However, Tipperary were rocked by a third goal on the counter attack from Joe McGloin, after Conor Quinn’s diving block on Seán O’Connor’s goalbound effort was swiftly transferred to Diffley, who squared for McGloin to palm home and open up an unassailable 3-7 to 0-6 lead.
To their credit, Tipperary battled all the way to the final whistle. After Tom Prior added another Leitrim point, Tipp were rewarded with a Cian Smith two-point free, followed by a pointed free before points from James Rooney and Jack Foley completed the Leitrim tally.
Darragh Brennan also saw a goalbound attempt blocked by Diffley, who then limped off before a Daithi Hogan point completed the scoring on a very disappointing day for Tipperary football.
Scorers: Leitrim: Jack Flynn and Tom Prior 1-1 each, Joe McGloin 1-0, Ben Guckian and Riordan O’Rourke 0-2 each, Jack Foley, Barry McNulty (0-1f) and James Rooney 0-1 each. Tipperary: Cian Smith 0-7 (0-2) 2p (0-2) 2ptf (0-3)f; Daithí Hogan 0-2 and Emmet Moloney 0-1.
Leitrim: Daire O’Shea; Kieran Clancy, Mark Diffley, Éanna McNamara; Jack Foley, Donal Casey, James Rooney; Barry McNulty, Cillian McGloin; Jack Flynn, Keith Keegan, Tom Prior; Ben Guckian, Joe McGloin, Riordan O’Rourke. Subs: Conor Quinn for C McGloin inj.23, Tom Hughes for Diffley inj.65, David Feeney for J McGloin 67, Evan Harkin for Keegan 70.
Tipperary: Shane Ryan; Manus McFadden, Eoin O’Connell, Emmet Moloney; Luke Boland, Mark Stokes, Jack O’Neill; Paudie Feehan, Kieran Costello; Micheál Freaney, Steven O’Brien, Cian Smith; Daithí Hogan, Darragh Brennan, Seán O’Connor.
Subs: Jason Madigan for McFadden (6-14)blood-sub, Madigan for McFadden inj.30, Conor Fahey for Freaney 34, Eoghan Power for Feehan 52, Mikey O’Shea for O’Connor 57, Mark Russell for Boland inj.60.
Referee: Thomas Murphy (Galway).