Football

Derry do enough to deservedly defeat 13-man Tipperary

Shane McGuigan scored 0-7 for Derry in their win over Tipperary.<br /> Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Shane McGuigan scored 0-7 for Derry in their win over Tipperary.
Picture Margaret McLaughlin

Allianz Football League Division Three: Derry 0-10 Tipperary 0-6

SUNSHINE (at times) and plenty of sand but life still wasn’t a beach for Derry who somehow had to dig in for a first league victory despite Tipperary being down to 13 men for the last quarter of this match.

This was a very strange day when the stormy weather anticipated wasn’t all that bad during game-time, apart from a very stiff breeze, but Tipperary frustrations still boiled over.

The craziness came midway through the second half, when Derry had taken charge with four scores in a row, culminating in a well-worked point from corner-back Liam McGoldrick, benefitting from briefly having an extra man.

Tipp had just been restored to their full complement, full-back John Meagher back on after a black card, when corner-back Alan Campbell was similarly ‘sin-binned’ for a foul on Shane McGuigan.

Before the Slaughtneil man could convert his sixth free (he subsequently did), Tipp were down to 13, midfielder Steven O’Brien apparently shown a straight red card, presumably for his complaints.

Yet the madness wasn’t over. A minute later Tipperary wing-back Daire Brennan was racing up the field, clearly being fouled by Padraig McGrogan – but the vicious elbow swung back at the Newbridge man left the ref no option but to dismiss the Tipp player.

However, almost inexplicably, Tipperary then outscored Derry over the remainder of the game – indeed a late goal could have snatched an extraordinary draw for the visitors.

Instead, McGuigan’s first point from play, deep into added time, sealed a fully deserved victory for the hosts, whose boss Rory Gallagher was very understanding about the unusual circumstances and conditions:

“It was good to get a win. This morning we felt the match wasn’t going to be on, it was a bit of a lottery, you saw the way it cut up there. But I felt we were the better team by a good stretch, we controlled the game in the first half against a very strong breeze.

“Second half we weren’t clinical enough, we should have been finishing that game with 1-14, 1-15 at our ease… We over-played ball, dropped some short, wasted other chances. We didn’t push on, although I thought they got one or two soft frees again,

“It left it a bit more nervy than it should have been but the boys were saying they haven’t beaten a team ranked like Tipperary in a number of years so that probably led to a little fear.”

For all the goings-on in the second half, much of the winning of this game was done before the break.

Despite playing against the wind, Derry dominated possession and defended well, further restricting Tipperary’s scoring chances in already difficult conditions.

The pitch was very heavy, and partly cut up after all the weekend rainfall and the Ulster U20 Championship match on Saturday, leading to players losing their footing when they tried to make major changes of direction.

Those elements may have influenced the inclusion of the tricky Niall Toner in attack for Derry, certainly because he came in for Alex Doherty, who had starred in that underage match.

Referee Jerome Henry was that annoying mixture of nit-picking and inconsistent, making several seemingly harsh calls against the hosts, with question marks over the frees which led to Tipp scores – with two of those opportunities brought forward.

Despite playing against that wind Derry created more opportunities, although there was a ‘hit and hope’ aspect to Shane McGuigan’s low shot from a breaking ball which went hard but straight at Tipp ’keeper Evan Comerford.

Tipp’s only goal chance also went along the ground, Brian Fox slipping a low pass through the gaping heart of the Derry defence only for it to elude the outstretched boot of Kevin Fahey running forward.

With both sides bringing most of their bodies back behind the ball when out of possession, Derry defender Niall Keenan had freedom to get forward and made several progressive forays, including one burst culminating in a well-taken score.

That came in the 19th minute; the next score came in injury time – it was that sort of game – a McGuigan free giving Derry a 4-3 lead, to Gallagher’s delight: “It was such a strong breeze you’d have taken being four or five points down – having been at the ‘20’ game you knew that.”

Tipperary boss David Power was probably regretting their insistence that the game go ahead even at that stage, never mind then losing two players in the second period, although he sent out a mixed message afterwards:

“The conditions were very tough and we’re obviously disappointed, but the whole scene has to be looked at. This game shouldn’t have happened; this game should have been pulled Friday, you can see the pitch.

“But, look, once we were up here we were adamant that we didn’t want to come up again next week. From the players and management point of view we wanted to play it.

“It doesn’t hide the fact that we were poor in the first half. Then we were down to 12 men for six or seven minutes. It was a poor day at the office, I don’t want to be making excuses, but I think Gaelic football players deserve better than that, that’s terrible.”

Gallagher had been in agreement about calling for a cancellation on Saturday, saying: “I can sympathise with him. We were making some queries towards Croke Park but they were quite clear the games were going ahead. The storm hasn’t hit as had been suggested but the quality of the pitch was affected.

“Once they were up, they wanted to play – and it’s always the same for both teams. But it’s very difficult to play free-flowing football, the ball just sticks, there was a mountain of sand put on the pitch.”

Summed up simply, Derry dealt with the trying conditions much better than Tipperary, despite Power claiming: “I wouldn’t be saying the wind was a deciding factor, it was more the field.”

Although they stayed in the game until the end, Tipp never scored from play, as Gallagher surmised: “We showed a lot of maturity, held them well defensively – I’m not sure if they scored from play at all, it was all frees.”

Derry will know they must convert more of their chances to keep promotion hopes alive – but they’ll have better days, in every respect apart from the result.

Derry: O Lynch; C McWilliams, B Rogers, L McGoldrick (0-1); S Downey, P McGrogan, N Keenan (0-1); C McKaigue (capt.), C McFaul; E Bradley, P Cassidy, D Tallon; B Heron, S McGuigan (0-7, 0-6 frees), N Toner (0-1).

Substitutes: A Doherty for Cassidy (59); C Bradley for E Bradley (64); D Cassidy for Toner (71); C Doherty for Heron (73); C McAtamney for Tallon (75).

Yellow card: Keenan (62).

Tipperary: E Comerford; A Campbell, J Meagher, C O’Shaughnessy; E Moloney, R Kiely, D Brennan; S O’Brien, Conal Kennedy; K Fahey, J Kennedy (0-2 frees), B Fox; L Boland, C Sweeney (capt.) (0-3 frees), K O’Halloran (0-1 free).

Substitutes: J Nyland for Kiely (h-t); R Quigley for Boland (h-t); A Moloney for Conal Kennedy (51); Colman Kennedy for O’Halloran (61); T Fitzgerald for Fahey (73).

Yellow card: O’Brien (26)

Black cards: Meagher (41-51); Campbell (51-61).

Red cards: O’Brien (53); Brennan (54).

Referee: Jerome Henry (Mayo).