Slick Sligo avoid any trip to Tipp
Niall Murphy and his Sligo teammates were rampant in their win away to Tipperary on Saturday.
Sligo made it two wins from two in the Tailteann Cup on Saturday as they totally outclassed Tipperary in Thurles. The home side played with the breeze in the opening half but struggled badly to manufacture scoring opportunities and ended up beaten by 16 points having lost their opening round clash with Antrim by five.
Sligo raced into a four points lead inside nine minutes with Niall Murphy, Nathan Mullen and the impressive Patrick O’Connor, two, each on target. Tipp were finally on the scoreboard on 15 minutes but instead of a point, full-forward Sean O’Connor could really have struck a goal having received a long ball in by Paudie Feehan.
Sligo quickly added three further points through Mikey Gordon and Niall Murphy, two, to give Sligo a 0-7 to 0-1 lead after 17 minutes, with Murphy causing Tipp full-back Jimmy Feehan all sorts of problems.
O’Connor replied with an excellent point off the outside of his boot but Sligo remained in complete control of proceedings, with Murphy pointing twice to increase his tally to five points after only 22 minutes.
Conor Sweeney, recently returned from injury, scored Tipperary’s third point before they had a second goal chance of the first-half, but Conall Kennedy was denied by Aidan Devaney. The resulting ’45 was converted by goalkeeper Evan Comerford.
The gap back to five points, Sligo hit back with two goals in a space of one minute. The first was from the penalty spot after Jack Kennedy’s late hit on Alan McLoughlin, which saw Murphy convert. The second was finished to the net by Sean Carrabine after a shot by Lee Deignan had rebounded off the post to Paddy O’Connor who played the ball into Castleconnor man Carrabine.
Sligo held a comfortable 2-11 to 0-5 lead at the interval and Tipperary knew a very big second-half display would be needed if they were to have any chance of reeling in the visitors. They did kick two of the opening three points, with Peter McGarry and Evan Comerford, a free, scoring either side of a Murphy pointed free, but this game was over as a contest a minute later when Niall Murphy fired home his second goal for a 2-6 personal haul. The attacking ace was withdrawn after 48 minutes, so comfortable were his team.
Sligo, finding plenty of holes in the Tipperary defence, added two further points before Eoghan Power replied with a single. The Premier County were mildly boosted by the dismissal of Sligo’s half-time substitute Keelan Cawley for a second booking yet the Black and White were still registering scores with greater ease, with Mark Walsh scoring twice in the final quarter.
Tipperary did plunder a consolation goal before the end with Stephen Grogan flicking a Sean O’Connor pass to the net but Sligo’s thoughts were already on their group decider against Antrim in two weeks’ time.
Scorers – Sligo Niall Murphy 2-6 (1-0pen, 0-1f, 0-1m), Sean Carrabine 1-3 (0-2f), Darragh Cummins and Patrick O’Connor 0-4 each, Mark Walsh 0-2, Paul Kilcoyne, Alan McLoughlin and Mickey Gordon 0-1 each.
Tipperary: Sean O’Connor and Evan Comerford (3f, 1 ’45) 0-4 each, Stephen Grogan 1-0, Conor Sweeney, Mark Russell, Peter McGarry and Eoghan Power 0-1 each.
Tipperary: Evan Comerford; Tadhg Condon, Jimmy Feehan, Paudie Feehan; Stephen Grogan, Mark Stokes, Emmet Moloney; James Morris, Jack Kennedy; Teddy Doyle, Conall Kennedy, Peter McGarry; Conor Sweeney, Sean O’Connor, Darragh Brennan. Subs: Mark Russell and Eoghan Power (for Doyle and Brennan ht), Shane O’Connell (for Condon 43), Luse Boland (for J Feehan 48), Kieran Costello (for McGarry 59).
Sligo: Aidan Devaney; Nathan Mullen, Eddie McGuinness, Evan Lyons; Luke Casserly, Brian Cox, Darragh Cummins; Paul Kilcoyne, Canice Mulligan; Mikey Gordon, Alan McLoughlin, Sean Carrabine; Patrick O’Connor, Niall Murphy, Lee Deignan. Subs: Keelan Cawley (for Gordon ht), Eoghan Smith (for Deignan ht), Mark Walsh (for Murphy 48), Peter Laffey (for Mullen 50), Shane Deignan (for Mulligan 67).
Referee Brendan Griffin (Kerry)
