Forde hits turbo for Tipperary
Tipp 1-20 Waterford Today, 2pm
JASON FORDE shot 1-9 as Tipperary bounced back from their opening round loss to Clare with a superb win at Semple Stadium.
Tipp blew Waterford away in the second-half with Derek Mcgrath’s men managing just 1-1 against the breeze.
Tipperary trailed by just a point at 0-10 to 0-9 at the break and then pulled away in the second-half.
It took a superb save from Waterford goalkeeper Stephen O’keeffe to deny Paudie Feehan just 17 seconds after the restart but Forde tied the sides for the fourth time from the resultant 65.
Waterford hit back with a quality goal when a good passing movement was finished to the net from a tight angle by Mark O’brien.
That tied the game at 0-13 to 1-10 but Tipperary, aided by a dubious lineball in midfield, were awarded a penalty when Breen was fouled by Ian Kenny.
Forde stepped forward to blast home the penalty and Waterford suffered another blow when Gleeson limped off.
Tipperary would have been out of sight had goalkeeper O’keeffe not produced a wonderful save to deny Forde.
Ronan Maher landed a superb lineball from the right and Forde tapped over another free as they pulled away for a deserved win.
Tipperary continued to turn the screw and Ronan Maher split the posts with another fine effort from out the field.
Jamie Barron got Waterford’s only point of the second-half in stoppage time at the death as they added five wides after the restart. SCORERS: TIPPERARY: J Forde (1-9, 1 pen, 0-7f, 0-1 ’65), R Maher (0-4, 1 lineball), S Curran (0-2), N Mcgrath (0-2, 1 lineball), B Maher (0-1), M Breen (0-1). J Mcgrath (0-1). WATERFORD: P Curran 0-3 (3f), M O’brien (1-0), M Kearney (0-3), B O’halloran (0-1), A Gleeson (0-1), DJ Foran (0-1), I Kenny (0-1), J Barron (0-1).