Injured Premier stars dig deep to stun Breffni

TIPPERARY patched up their walking wounded and mounted a serious fightback from six points down against Cavan to advance to Round 3B of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers.

Without injured star forward Michael Quinlivan, Philip Austin and suspended goalkeeper Evan Comerford, they struggled badly early on and trailed 0-12 to 0-6 at half-time.

Yet somehow, Tipp hit their stride and were a team transformed after the break, reeling off four points in a row within eight minutes of the restart to ignite the comeback.

That was the cue for Quinlivan – who suffered a bad ankle injury in the defeat to Cork four weeks ago – to enter the fray with his team trailing by three. Within minutes, Tipp were level with half-time substitute Austin kicking the equaliser to make it 13 each after 54 minutes.

Austin then won the crucial penalty, which Conor Sweeney tucked away superbly.

Robbie Kiely bagged a 62nd-minute goal and while clearly still hampered by his ankle injury, Quinlivan scored again to put Tipp through.