Courageous Carlow deliver for Rainbow
Carlow corner-forward Daniel St Ledger was stretchered off with a serious injury in the first-half and the Barrowsiders lost wing back Kieran Nolan to a second yellow card midway through the second half. But the 14 men, with the aid of a second half breeze, held firm and emerged one-point winners.
With Brian Fox, Alan Maloney and Barry Grogan in good scoring form, Tipp were six points clear approaching the break, in front of an official attendance of 474. But Carlow struck for a crucial goal from Paul Reid on the stroke of half-time and when Willie Minchin added a point, Rainbow’s men trailed by 1-6 to 0-11 at the midway point.
Scorers for Tipperary: B Grogan 0-5 (2f, 1 45), A Maloney 0-4fs, B Fox 0-3, G Hannigan 0-2, C Sweeney, L McGrath 0-1 each.
Scorers for Carlow: P Reid 1-1, Brian Murphy (3fs), D Foley (2fs) 0-3 each, W Minchin, E Ruth 0-2 each, T Bolger, D St Ledger (f), B Murphy (f) 0-1 each.
TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; A Morrissey, P Codd, J Coghlan; B Fox, R Kiely, C McDonald; G Hannigan, P Quirke; D Leahy, A Maloney, D Lowry; M Quinlivan, P Acheson, B Grogan.
Subs: L McGrath for Quinlivan (44), A Campbell for Morrissey (54), H Coghlan for Maloney (58), C Sweeney for Lowry (63), A Matassa for Quirke (66).
CARLOW: T O’Reilly; BJ Molloy, S Mernagh, B Kavanagh; K Nolan, D Hayden, T Bolger; D Foley, S Redmond; R Walker, P Reid, E Ruth; Brian Murphy, W Minchin, D St Ledger.
Subs: Brendan Murphy for St Ledger (inj, 26), J Murphy for Foley (66).
Referee: P Fox (Westmeath).