Kearns praises troops as Tipp edge closer to safety by crushing Meath
TIPPERARY 2-15 MEATH 1-10
ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIV 2
TIPPERARY manager Liam Kearns was pleased with the way his men closed out their second win of the campaign at Semple Stadium.
It’s their first win since they won in Cork on the opening night of the season and, having been caught by Roscommon in their last home match, Kearns was determined that they wouldn’t slip up again.
Having drawn away to Clare, Tipperary are now poised to safeguard their status in the division having been promoted and could even make a drive towards the top flight.
“I’m very pleased. That was a four-pointer and we are one win away from consolidating our place in Division 2,” said the Tipperary manager.
“We were very disappointed with our performance against Clare, all of us and I take a lot of the blame for that as I clearly didn’t have their mindset right for that game.
“We played really well here against Roscommon and got mugged so it was good to close out the win this time. I think we definitely deserved the win,” added Kearns.
Meath manager Andy McEntee, whose side never led in the match, had no complaints after watching his charges suffer their second defeat of the campaign.
“We are very disappointed with that performance. We were outplayed all over the pitch and can’t have any excuses. We have a lot to do,” said McEntee.
Tipperary produced a superb second quarter to open up a 1-8 to 0-5 interval lead.
Conor Sweeney, who finished with 0-9, landed some good efforts and Michael Quinlivan blasted home a good goal just before the break.
Meath’s best spell came after the restart with Pádraig McKeever pointing a free and then James McEntee and Graham Reilly quickly added points to cut the gap to 1-8 to 0-8 after 38 minutes.
But Tipperary hit back and Bill Maher soloed in from the left before drilling the ball low to the net.
They never looked back after that, although Bryan Menton got in for a late Meath goal to put a more respectable look on the scoreline.
SCORERS – Tipperary: C Sweeney 0-9 (6f); M Quinlivan 1-1; B Maher 1-0; L Casey, S O’Brien, J Keane, L McGrath, S Carey 0-1 each. Meath: P McKeever 0-4 (4f); B Menton 1-0; J McEntee, G Reilly 0-2 each; S Tobin & T O’Reilly 0-1 each.
TIPPERARY – E Comerford 6; A Campbell 8, S O’Connell 6, K Fahey 6; J Meagher 7, R Kiely 7, J Feehan 6; L Casey 7, S O’Brien 7; B Fox 6, J Keane 7, L McGrath 7; C Sweeney 8, B Maher 6, M Quinlivan 8. Subs: P Codd 7 for O’Connell (36), L Boland 6 for Fahey (61), G Hannigan 6 for O’Brien (66), S Carey 6 for McGrath (70).
MEATH – A Colgan 7; S Lavin 6, C McGill 6, D Keegan 7; D O’Neill 6, M Burke 7, S McEntee 6; B Menton 7, H Rooney 6; J McEntee 6, G Reilly 7, E Wallace 6; S Tobin 7, P McKeever 8, C O’Sullivan 6. Subs: B Power 7 for O’Neill (29), B McMahon 7 for Tobin (34), D Lenihan 6 for O’Sullivan (52), A Flanagan 6 for Rooney (57), T O’Reilly 6 for McKeever (57), B Conlon 6 for S McEntee (68).
REF – N Cullen (Fermanagh)