Kelly pleased with Tipp's relentless attitude

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary manager Paul Kelly cut a very satisfied figure as his side left what hasn’t been a happy hunting ground of late in Longford with the first two points of their 2024 league campaign on the board.

“Last week we highlighted that there were too many errors and when you concede three goals you lose a game, today no goals and we won,” Kelly said of the two point win.

“There were still a few errors but there was a huge workrate, apart from the first ten or fifteen minutes as it took us a little bit longer to get into it, but then we showed a huge amount of go-forward power in the second part of the first half, and to be fair they were fairly relentless in the second half. This team can score, and they did very well out there today.”

With what is an inexperienced group, it was the younger players that were to the fore in the performance, particularly James Morris and Cathal Deely in the first half, while after the injury enforced departure of captain Steven O’Brien, Paddy Creedon filled in superbly at midfield.

“Paddy made a huge contribution,” Kelly agreed, “but ultimately, fifteen attack and fifteen defend, and it takes twenty to win.

“In that first fifteen minutes, I wasn’t as happy with what we had discussed and practised on Tuesday and Friday, we were probably a little timid but once we pressed the aggression button, I thought we were very good.

“Pressure brings mistakes, and we forced them into mistakes with that pressure. Longford are a very good team; they play nice football. I was here last year with Wicklow, and they have us an unmerciful pummelling. They can play, and with that breeze (second half) you have to me immensely proud of the lads, they stood up today and showed a huge amount of resilience.”

While there were elements they didn’t manage to improve in following the loss to Carlow, their mentality when they got into a winning position was something that pleased the new boss.

“Today, the concentration was there, the attitude, the application was there,” Kelly said pointedly.

“You are playing against a gale-force wind, they have Mickey Quinn, they have a good group of lads off the back of winning an O’Byrne Cup against Dublin, and they can score.

“We are a young team, developing, and trying to play what I believe is a positive brand of football, without being naïve, and against a wind like that, if you sit back you are going to get hurt. Even our substitutions were with a view to going forward with aggression.

“Last week, take out the errors, we got a performance; this week we took out a good few errors, conceded no goals, got a performance, and got the win.”

The only downside from the win was Steven O’Brien limping out in the first half with a hamstring injury which dogged him through the league campaign last year and looks set to miss at least the next game with London on Sunday week with Paul Kelly welcoming the first mini-break.

“We need the rest and to try and re-evaluate where the bodies are and then build for London,” he said.

“The group of lads don’t have a structured summer strength & conditioning programme behind them which is something that has to be addressing for the future.”