Fitzgerald frustrated at poor performance

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary manager Niall Fitzgerald cut a frustrated figure in the aftermath of Sunday’s Tailteann Cup defeat to Antrim.

“Fiercely disappointed with the result firstly, he began.

“But disappointed with elements of the performance; we didn't show ourselves at all for long periods of the game.

“Some of the mistakes for the goals were cruel.

“I didn't think we got much our way during the game. There were a few big decisions that happened just that didn't fall our way, but no excuses, we're disappointed.”

Playing against the stiff breeze in the first half, the visitors managed to contain Antrim well for the first 25 minutes but when they broke through for their first goal through the middle, the found an avenue for success which they went after.

“They have gotten a lot of goals in games; that has been their game,” Fitzgerald said of Antrim.

“They had strong runners and a few of the goals came straight down the middle, and like it was no team going to be happy to concede them.”

He added: “Two of the goals came from what we felt were blatant frees that we didn't get. I just can't get my head around some of the decisions. There seemed to be a clear check for the first goal, and in the second half Paudie (Feehan) got what seemed to be a head high challenge. We struggled to win any of those fifty-fifty decisions; we got punished for them.”

Tipperary had a lot of the ball in the opening half and while they had to be patient in how they used it because of the strength of the breeze, Fitzgerald felt they coughed it up too cheaply.

“In the first half we with a lot of possession but went into trouble with poor decision-making and we weren’t happy with that,” added the Moyle Rovers clubman.

“We were playing against the wind and when we held it patiently and got a shot off, or won a free it was great, but we were turned over ten times in the first half from going into areas we shouldn't have gone into.

“When you are turned over ten times in the half, playing against the wind, you're in trouble because Antrim are a counter-attacking team so you're just giving them energy by giving them turnovers like that.

“We didn’t do that against Sligo. We held the ball until we ready. We seemed in a rush today for some reason and we got punished for it.”

In that first half, Tipperary dominated the middle of the field with Joe Higgins giving another masterclass in high fielding claiming no fewer than four marks but Antrim managed to negate him in the second half and with it Tipp’s ability to get possession on a regular basis.

“We adapted to going short way too late,” Fitzgerald agreed.

“We got a few good ones off towards the end, but the lads need to be recognising that way earlier in the half, when you are losing two around the middle, you have to be looking at a finding a solution.”

“Last week against Sligo we had more the ball, so that was the fundamental. They (Antrim) got a massive grip around the middle for the third quarter and we just didn't adapt that at all.”

On a positive note, the Tipperary manager pointed to the impact of the bench, particularly Paddy Creedon and Steven O’Brien who contributed 1-3 between them, but also provided extra physicality against an Antrim side who had more athletic and experienced players in their side.

However, the Tipperary manager says the player cannot continue to have that as an excuse.

“You can talk about the evolution of the team and they being young and all that but this was a game we came here to win, and we didn’t perform,” he said bluntly.

“The lads know that they didn’t perform anywhere close to what was expected of them.

“We will go into the dressing room and lads will have to have a real tough look at themselves. We will review we're doing and what areas we need to improve on because that was substandard.

“Hopefully, in two weeks’ time, we're in a position to give a better performance.”