Heavy defeat a major setback to Tipperary's promotion prospects

Wicklow 3-19 Tipperary 0-14

Tipperary footballers’ promotion hopes are almost completely dead and buried as they were beaten by Wicklow by 14 points in Sunday’s game at Echelon Park, Aughrim.

Tipp won the toss and decided to play into a heavy breeze. Their game plan seemed obvious; hold possession and tire Wicklow, then, when with the wind, go to town on the scoreboard.

The plan was working for the opening five minutes, the only hiccup being when Joe Higgins kicked wide from close range in the third minute.

It took Wicklow a few attempts but eventually Kevin Quinn found the target with a two-pointer in the seventh minute, and from here the floodgates opened.

Quinn added another two-pointer next, with Pádráig O’Toole getting the first goal in the 11th minute after Wicklow won Shane Garland’s kickout from Quinn’s second score.

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The Garden County men worked the ball to O’Toole, who had snuck in behind the Tipp full back line to create a one on one chance, which he took.

Oisin McGraynor added another two-pointer before James Morris got Tipp’s first point in the 14th minute.

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Through McGraynor, Quinn and then Mark Jackson with two two-pointers from frees, Tipp were being tormented at the back in the middle third in the first half.

Eoin Darcy got the second goal of the game to cement the home side’s dominance in the 25th minute.

After this goal, Tipp got back into the game ever so slightly, with Sean O’Connor scoring a free and then Cian Smith getting a point from play.

Just before the half finished the crowd was treated to an enthralling sequence of play. Charlie King kicked the ball into Wicklow’s box, hoping to find a team mate, only for the ball to hit the goalpost. Wicklow broke and were in the Tipp half, where Jack Harney thwarted the attack by getting a fist to ball when it was played past his 45. Tipp then broke and it led to Smith taking a shot at goal, which Jackson saved, sending it for a 45.

O’Connor took the 45 and it dropped short; Wicklow caught it with ease and broke down the pitch, where O’Toole got the final score of the half, making it Wicklow 2-15 to Tipperary 0-3 at the interval.

Tipp started strongly in the opening five minutes of the second half, as O’Connor emulated Quinn by getting a two-pointer to start the scoring in the half.

Against the wind, Wicklow looked a lot more positive than Tipp had. You could probably put that down to them having such a large lead.

They nearly got their third goal in the 40th minute when Jack Kirwan went through on goal and took a shot; Garland dived, saved and sent the ball out for a 45 that Jackson sent wide.

O’Connor kicked wide with another attempt for a two-pointer next, while Wicklow were holding up the Tipp attack well and were stopping breaks whenever they came.

Steven O’Brien scored a 45 in the 47th minute, but after that Tipp were only kicking wides until Wicklow’s first score of the half came from an Eoin Darcy free.

Smith scored another point next but saw it cancelled out by Chris O’Brien down at the other end.
Paddy Creedon came off the bench and scored two points, while Sean O’Connor scored a pair of two-pointer frees before the end.

Quinn got his goal in the 69th minute after Garland saved a Dean Healy shot. Creedon had tried to clear only for the ball to end up in the hands of Quinn, who kicked into an empty net.

The game came to a halt in added time as Manus McFadden was adjudged to have been pushed into the post by McGraynor, as the corner back was running across goal; the ref issued a yellow card, which should indicate that it was a total accident, and thankfully McFadden was able to play on after treatment.

O’Brien scored a 45 to finish the game as Wicklow ran out easy winners.

Wicklow: Mark Jackson (0-4, 2 2pt, 4f); Tom Moran, Matt Nolan, Malachy Stone; Gavin Fogarty, Jaques McCall, Jonny Carlin; Dean Healy, Jack Kirwan; Chris O’Brien (0-1), Pádraig O’Toole (1-1), Kevin Quinn (1-5, 2 2pt); Oisin McGraynor (0-5, 1 2pt, 2sl), Joe Prendergast, Eoin Darcy (1-2, 1f).
Subs: Cillian McDonald for McCall (61), Conor Fee (0-1) for O’Brien (65), Cathal Baker for Carlin (69), Liam O’Neill for O McGraynor (69), Séan Murphy for Quinn (69).

Tipperary: Shane Garland; Jack Harney, Eoin O’Connell, Manus McFadden; Mark Stokes, James Morris (0-1), Charlie King; Joe Higgins, Paudie Feehan; Eoin Craddock, Steven O’Brien (0-2, 2 45), Kieran Costello; Cian Smyth (0-2), Sean O’Connor (0-7, 3 2pt, 5f), Daithí Hogan.
Subs: Paddy Creedon (0-2) for Craddock (48), Mark Russell for Higgins (48), Paddy O’Keeffe for Hogan (49), Killian Butler for Stokes (57), Michéal Freaney for Feehan (60).

Referee: James Regan (Cork).