Power frustrated as Tipp stare at early exit

By Michael Dundon

A massive win over Waterford is required if Tipperary are to have a chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the Tailteann Cup.

That’s manager David Power’s reading of the situation after seeing his side slump to a morale-destroying eighteen point defeat at the hands of down at Semple Stadium on Sunday. It was Tipp’s second defeat in the competition.

Down and Meath top the group with two wins from two games leaving it to Waterford and Tipp to slug it out for the third spot, with neither side sure that victory would get them through as one of the third placed teams in the group stages is going to lose out due to the entry of New York, With scoring difference to enter the equation, Tipp’s situation (minus 29) is undoubtedly precarious.

“It’s all very frustrating,” admitted the Tipperary manager.

“We have to finish with a massive win over Waterford and even that might not be enough to get us through”.

He added: “We were six points down when we were awarded the penalty. A goal then and we were right in the game, but we missed it, and they went down and got a goal off that disallowed mark by Mark Russell. To me that just typified the kind of year we have been having. We miss crucial scores at crucial times and simply are not scoring enough generally.

“The players are putting in a huge effort, but it is just not happening for us. That goal, and our missed penalty was the turning point of this game. The same thing happened us against Meath. We miss vital scores and then get punished for simple errors. That sucks the life out of the team.”

The manager now turns his thoughts to the clash with Waterford at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork on Saturday, June 3rd at 1.00pm, prior to Cork v Kerry in the Sam Maguire Championship.

Tipp have beaten Waterford in both the McGrath Cup and the Munster championship, but the Kilsheelan/Kilcash clubman acknowledges that it will be difficult to pick the players up after Sunday’s setback.

However, he added: “We want to finish with a win, and it will have to be by a massive score if we are to advance in the competition but look, we will give it everything just have we have done in all our matches all year and maybe we’ll get a bit of a break this time.”