We got away with it - Kelly

By Darragh Leen

There was a hint of relief but the overriding reaction from Tipperary manager Paul Kelly was one of disappointment after the Premier took only a point from their trip to Ruislip.

With the goal of promotion back to Division 3 very much front and centre for Tipp, new boss Kelly was targeting a win and both points to close the gap on Laois, Leitrim and Carlow above them, but he had to concede that his players simply made too many mistakes to walk out of McGovern Park with full points.

“London put up a great display but we made too many errors on the day, sloppy passing and the likes. We let them back into the game,” began the Tipp manager.

Away days are never easy, as Kelly is well aware, and giving the opposition hope is the last thing his side needed to do.

“We left ourselves a mountain to climb in a very tough environment,” he continued.

“So, while we’re relatively happy with a point we’re also reflecting on the way we finished the game.”

Tipp gained the upper hand going into the last five minutes of added time in London but a late in the day Cathal Healy point from range halted any celebrations Tipp may have been awaiting.

The point leaves the premier county in fourth place, one point behind Carlow and three behind leaders Laois on six. Kelly insists, however, that he and his side are only interested in themselves and their own progress.

“When it comes to the table, we’re only looking at ourselves, we’re not looking up or down,” he said.

“We’ve a tough game against Laois coming up so we’ll turn all our focus to that and prepare accordingly.

"There’s a number of things we need to change for that game including the general error count. You can’t afford to make that many mistakes especially against a really tough opposition like Laois.”

Kelly seemed particularly frustrated with the many errors his side chalked up.

“We work on it a lot in training but we ultimately end up lapsing back into bad habits again so we need to improve on that.

“I think we got away with one a bit today. We’re not disappointed with the point but I think there was plenty of opportunity to win the game and we just didn’t take those chances,” he said.