Tenacious Tipperary footballers gave Sligo plenty to think about

Sligo 2-15 Tipperary 2-10

A five-points defeat away to Sligo might have looked like a respectable result for Tipperary’s footballers, playing against higher-ranked opponents in the first round of the Tailteann Cup on Sunday.

But the visitors would not have been flattered if they had left Tubbercurry with at least a draw following a high tempo performance that left the Connacht side delighted to escape with a win.

Sligo are an established Division 3 side and got within three points of Mayo in the provincial quarter-final. However, Tipperary travelled to the north west with no regard for reputations and shocked the home support in the crowd of 1,949 with one of their best displays of the year.

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A Paudie Feehan goal after just four minutes gave them a lead that they didn’t surrender until the 23rd minute. They trailed by three at the break, 2-9 to 2-6, with Sean O’Connor scoring their second goal from the penalty spot in added time.

But three points without reply in the first eleven minutes of the second half, from an O’Connor free, Micheál Freaney and Cian Smith, brought them level. The Sligo attack finally kicked into gear and they went three ahead again midway through the half.
But then two crucial goal chances weren’t taken. First, O’Connor saw a low goal-bound shot blocked down, and a minute later Freaney had a close-range attempt rebound off the crossbar, and the chance was gone.

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“We had a purple patch, and a big turning point was the ball hitting the crossbar as a goal would have brought us back into the game,” selector Paul Cahill said in the aftermath.

“We took two goal chances and we were probably unlucky not to get a couple more. But it was a huge effort from our lads and we cannot fault them. Sligo got a few scores and closed it out but that’s the difference with fine margins at this level”.

The Grangemockler/Ballyneale man, speaking in the absence of manager Philly Ryan, who was unable to travel following recent hip surgery, said they knew they were facing a major challenge in Sligo but he was happy that they acquitted themselves so well.

“Inexperience played its part, with a number of championship debutants, but we have huge belief in these players. We had Daithí Hogan coming in from the under 20s, and Jack O’Neill as well put in a huge performance”.

Cahill knows that Tipperary face an even bigger challenge at home to Kildare in Clonmel this Saturday – the Leinster side ran up 0-36 against Leitrim last weekend, and Tipp will be without corner back Jack Harney.

“Jack pulled his hamstring, he did one earlier in the year and now the other one is gone. He was having a huge game, we gave him a job to do on Pat Spillane and he was phenomenal.

“He’s a loss but we have a panel and let’s see who’ll put up their hand to fill the void”.

Tipperary enjoyed the perfect start for a visiting side in front of a partisan home support, when a long ball from Paudie Feehan eluded defenders and goalkeeper before ending up in the net after just four minutes. Tipperary continued to play on the front foot and a Sean O’Connor point two minutes later extended the lead.

Sligo captain Niall Murphy opened their account thirty seconds later, but Tipperary skipper Steven O’Brien – who played the full 70-plus minutes despite taking a heavy knock in the first half– showed his leadership qualities when taking a pass from O’Connor to shoot over.

Two Alan McLoughlin points from frees and another from Murphy, to a Tipp reply from Mark Stokes, left it 1-3 to 0-4 after thirteen minutes, before O’Brien hit a superb two-pointer to extend the Tipp lead.

Sligo needed a response and they got it with three in a row from David Quinn, with two points, and another from Alan Reilly, followed by a decisive goal from Pat Spillane – son of the Kerry legend of the same name. Shane Ryan brought off a fine save as Sligo attacked in waves, but when the ball fell to Spillane he made no mistake from close range.

And it got worse for Tipperary when Patrick O’Connor tagged on a point, followed by another Sligo goal from the hugely impressive Alan McLoughlin. An Alan Reilly point made it 2-9 to 1-5 by the 34th minute – a 2-5 swing in twenty minutes.

However, Tipp finished the half strongly. Sean O’Connor pointed a free, their first score in 24 minutes, and four minutes into added time he scored from the penalty spot after Kieran Costello was dragged down when heading through on goal.

Tipp were three points down at the interval, but were two players up four minutes into the second half – Eddie McGuinness had been black-carded for the foul on Costello, and substitute Shane Deignan followed him to the sideline for a pull-back on Jack O’Neill.

The visitors made use of the numerical advantage to move the ball around, taking advantage of the space created, and hitting three points without reply to draw level – O’Connor from a free, Freaney from a mark, and Cian Smith following a great Mark Stokes intercept of a short Sligo free.

They also had calls for a penalty following a foul on O’Brien but referee Sean Hurson ruled otherwise.

When Sligo were restored to fifteen players they went on to dominate the final quarter against a tiring Tipperary, hitting 0-6 to a solitary reply from Sean O’Connor in the 74th minute, their first score in thirty minutes. It might have been different if they had been able to convert one or both of their second half goal chances.

Tipperary: Shane Ryan (Clonmel Commercials), Manus McFadden (Grangemockler/Ballyneale), Jimmy Feehan (Killenaule), Jack Harney (Moyle Rovers), Mark Stokes (Kilsheelan/Kilcash) 0-1; Luke Boland (Moyle Rovers), Jack O’Neill (Ardfinnan), Paudie Feehan (Killenaule) 1-0; Kieran Costello (Thurles Sarsfields), Micheál Freaney (Kilsheelan/Kilcash) 0-1; Daithí Hogan (St Patrick’s), Steven O’Brien (Ballina) 0-3, 1 2pt; Cian Smith (Clonmel Commercials) 0-1; Darragh Brennan (Ballyporeen), Sean O’Connor (Clonmel Commercials) 1-4, 2f, 1-0 penalty.

Subs: Mikey O’Shea (Mullinahone) for Brennan (32), Mark Russell (Aherlow) for Jack O’Neill (46), Emmet Moloney (Portlaoise) for Jack Harney (50), James Morris (Clonmel Commercials) for Paudie Feehan (61), Ben Comerford (Grangemockler/Ballyneale) for Hogan (70).

Sligo: Daniel Lyons, Evan Lyons, Eddie McGuinness, Paul McNamara, Brian Cox, Nathan Mullen, Luke Towey, Paul Kilcoyne, Patrick O’Connor 0-2; Cian Lally, David Quinn 0-2; Alan Reilly 0-2; Alan McLoughlin 1-3, 2f; Niall Murphy 0-2; Pat Spillane 1-2.

Subs: Shane Deignan for Murphy (23), Donal Conlon for Deignan (49), Daragh Cummins 0-1 for Kilcoyne (53), Ross Doherty 0-1 for Cox (61), Mikey Gordon for Reilly (65).

Referee: Sean Hurson (Tyrone).