Sport

Tipperary at a stroll

As expected, Tipperary collected valuable league points when they took on Laois at O'Moore Park on Saturday evening.

Mon Apr 12 1999 - 01:00

As expected, Tipperary collected valuable league points when they took on Laois at O'Moore Park on Saturday evening.

Laois lost last week to Waterford, while Tipperary scored a morale-boosting victory over old rivals Cork.

The visitors signalled their intentions early on when John Leahy gave them a lead after just 23 seconds. By the 38th minute the visitors led 0-8 to 0-2. Leahy sparkled in the early stages, as did centre forward Ger Maguire who scored four points from play.

Laois revived their hopes when a long free by Niall Rigney was finished by full forward Mark Rooney. Tipperary goalkeeper Kevin O'Brien, who has been filling in for the injured but now recovered Brendan Cummins, dropped the ball and presented Rooney with the opportunity.

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Five minutes later Paul Shelley took a pass from Maguire to score an excellent goal for Tipperary. Shelley played an influential role at full forward adding a point to his goal and, with a neat flick, setting up All Star footballer Declan Browne for a goal chance which was well saved by Laois goalkeeper Ricky Cashin.

At half-time the visitors were in a commanding lead of 1-14 to 1-4.

Laois did improve in the second half to score two points from David Cuddy. However, Tipperary responded with points from Declan Carr and Tommy Dunne.

Then just on full time, Tipperary substitute Brian O'Meara received an excellent pass from Shelley and scored an excellent Tipperary goal.

Despite the good performance Tipperary manager Nicholas English will still have some concerns. Eamonn Corcoran, who was beginning to establish himself at full back, looked less convincing in the corner while Fergal Heaney, who played at number three, wasn't totally convincing.

English will be pleased with the progress being made by David Kennedy, who had another commanding performance at centre back.

TIPPERARY: K O'Brien; E Corcoran, F Heaney, L Sheedy; R Ryan, D Kennedy, C Bonner; E Enright, D Carr (0-1); T Dunne (0-7), G Maguire (0-4), J Leahy (0-2); L Cahill, P Shelley (1-1), D Browne (0-1). Subs: D Ryan for Browne; B O'Meara (0-1) for Leahy.

LAOIS: R Cashin; P J Peacock, W Maher, S Dooley; N Rigney (0-3), P Cuddy, A Bergin; D Conroy, O Dowling; D Cuddy (0-2), Declan Rooney (0-2), C Cuddy; L Tynan, M Rooney, (1-0), E Fennelly (0-2). Subs: Darren Rooney for Dowling (inj.): F O'Sullivan for David Cuddy.

Referee: Gerry Devlin (Armagh).