U16 A Munster Championship.

Round 2.

Tipperary V Kerry.

Fethard Town Park, Tipperary.

18/02/2024 at 1pm

Kerry, possibly buoyed up by their B squads win less than a half an hour earlier, attacked this game with venom from the throw in. While Tipperary absorbed this early pressure well initially the dam broke in the 4^th, 5th and 7^th minutes with points from Jessie Lynch, Keeva Riordan and Brid Curtin respectively.

Though we were entertained by some spectacular footballing skills Tipperary found it difficult to settle enough to bear down on target with 2 placed ball attempts falling to the left and right of the uprights.

But for a most spectacular save from the Tipperary keeper, Kate Hennessy, Tipp would have found themselves further behind on the score board inside the first 15 minutes.

This game was so fast paced with possession flipping from Tipp to Kerry and back again in seconds it was hard to judge the outfield dominance but Kerry had the scoring boots on and tagged on a further 3 points in the 18^th, 27^th and 28^th minutes before Tipperary could register their first score of the half on 30 mins from a well-oiled Amy O’Connor boot.

HALF TIME                      TIPPERARY 0 – 1                   KERRY 0 – 7

Tipperary appeared invigorated on the resumption and Amy O’Connor was unlucky to barely miss the target in the 2^nd minute. The Tipp side were managing Kerry well but the introduction of Sarah O’Brien in the 5^th minute for Kerry topped by a yellow card issued to Tipp in the 7^th minute made the task at hand more difficult. However, an Abi Ryan overturned ball from the Kerry attack saw Tipp register the first score of the half on 9 mins off a Kate Nevin right leg strike.

Tipp , still on 14 players, began to assert some hard earned dominance and 3 mins later updated the score board again from a Kate Nevin free to close the deficit further. Before the end of this quarter both side introduced some fresh legs off the bench and Tipp were briefly returned to 15 players before another Tipp yellow card saw the side reduced to 14 again in the 16^th minute.

Tipperary needed to settle into this new norm and whilst trying to recover their shape Kerry poached in with their second half opener in the 19^th minute and pointed from placed ball.

The following 10 minutes were a feast of football with possession being the ultimate prize and Tipp very much had the upper hand in the 27^th minute when Kate Nevin and Amy O’Connor both split the posts within mere seconds of each other to close the scoreboard gap even further  but in a cruel twist of fate and possibly against the run of play, Tipperary were very unfortunate to drive a ball wide of the sticks – Kerry capitalised on the resultant kick out and scored the ultimate winner in the 31^st minute with a point from Emily O’Sullivan.

This was an intriguing contest from start to finish and undoubtedly this Tipp side will be driven on to further achieve in their next encounter.

FULL TIME                             TIPPERARY 0 – 6                  KERRY 0 – 9

TIPPERARY

Kate Hennessy, Ava Gleeson, Tara Bourke, Nicole Buckley, Sienna Ferris, Louise McGrath, Julie Grey, Neasa Dwan, Abi Ryan, Amy O’Connor (0-2), Rosie O’Brien, Sinead Lonergan, Abbie Horgan, Kate Nevin (0-4)(1F), Grace Hogan.

SUBS USED

Evanne Gleeson for Sinead Lonergan (27 mins), Rachel Coffey for Abi Ryan (43 mins), Lily Flannery for Neasa Dwan (44 mins), Heather Kiely for Grace Hogan (51 mins)