Well, I'd say that was as much down to Tipp's inadequacies as any brilliance from our lads. A four point loss, we'll certainly take - especially when we were so toothless up front, and when we played most of the second half with Purcell sent off. Picky was our only starter who scored from play (didn't he get the touch for the goal, too?), and he seemed to run out of steam a bit in the second half, too. Keyes, in fairness, was lively enough when he came in, and his 0-3 should see him start the next day. I hope. Where's the likes of P.J. Scully? Not the answer to all our prayers, I know, but he'd be an option, and had been improving.
Odd. I know it was a bad night, but the big crowd was practically dead, and there was no sense at all, even when they got it back to three in the last quarter, that Laois could get anything from this. Only for a couple of missed goal chances (not that Tipp hadn't), and a lot of wides in the first half (most of them carried to the same side by the wind), and Laois could easily have threatened what was a pretty mediocre Tipp team.
I suppose the positive thing is that we did quite well in the backs with some good last-gasp defending and not conceding a goal was nice. Podge Delaney stood out but, in fairness, none of the backs had a poor game. Fiachra Fennell did well in the middle but, as said, we need more up front. The Tipp lads had us for size almost everywhere, and our bench didn't seem especially inspiring or indicative of any great depth.
Anyway, we'll see. Not too bad for starters, and plenty of room for improvement!
