Final margin not indicative of game trend - Sheedy

On the face of it, an eighteen point victory should tell its down story but on 51 minutes with Waterford down to fourteen men and having whittled an eight point deficit down to three, such a final margin wouldn’t have been what Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy was expecting.

“No, it was not,” admitted the Portroe man.

“Obviously we got an extra man midway through the first half, but even Waterford was probably sending the warning signals to us. They got the two scores before half time to bring it back to six. So, you know, they left themselves well in the game at half time.

“Full credit to them, I think they had to use a massive energy to get it back to three points when they were a man down. To get the score back to where it was took a huge effort and that probably cost them in the finish, because they were working with a man down.”

Jason Forde’s goal on 54 minutes broke the Waterford spirit and from there to the end, Tipperary outscored their opponents 1-9 to 0-1 to claim their second win and with it, boost their scoring difference if that becomes an issue later in the campaign.

However, Liam Sheedy wasn’t getting carried away with the victory and pointed to issues that need to be addressed.

“The goal gave us that bit of breathing space, you know, and we got some nice scores after that.

“I thought for long periods of that game we were outplayed and you’d have to give Waterford full credit for that. We struggled at times to deal with the way they moved the ball through the lines, especially for long periods of that first half.

 

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