Tipperary football manager Philly Ryan pleads for 'time and patience'

Tipperary manager Philly Ryan, who was present at Sunday’s Tailteann Cup football game in Mullingar on crutches following his recent hip operation, admitted that he was disappointed with the result, as his team was beaten by Leitrim by 3-9 to 0-10.

“I am disappointed with the result because we came here today to win and it’s a disappointing way to finish the season.

“But there will be lots of disappointments and this team re-building will take time and patience.

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“But I have no complaints about the result because Leitrim fully deserved their victory,” said Philly, who believed that Tipperary’s poor first half display left his team with a mountain to climb.

“We just could not get our hands on the ball long enough in the first half to build up any kind of score with the aid of the wind.
However, there was a much improved second half performance and we kept going until the final whistle, which was pleasing”.

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The Tipperary manager was also keen to focus on the positives from the past few months, including the fact that so many young players and rising stars had made their inter-county debuts.

“It was always going to be huge undertaking but with a number of young players coming through the underage ranks there are promising times ahead.

"But there will be more disappointments like today before this team can look forward to progressing out of Division 4.

“Leitrim were a Division 3 team who are now back in Division 4, so we do not have long to wait to judge our progress when we next meet”.