Tipperary hurlers made to work hard for home win over dogged Westmeath side

Allianz National Hurling League - Division 1A - Round 3

Tipperary 3-25

Westmeath 2-21

Tipperary continued their one-hundred percent record in this year’s National Hurling League with a scrappy win over a dogged and well-organized Westmeath side in FBD Semple Stadium on Saturday evening.

Joe Fortune’s men dug in really deep in different periods of the game when Tipperary threatened to pull away comprehensively and they deserve huge credit for that with corner forward David Williams leading the charge for them as he finished with 2-12 to his name. 

For Tipperary, this was well touted in advance as a final audition for several players with the axe due to fall in the coming weeks on the extended panel as Liam Cahill looks to finalize his personnel for the remainder of the league and championship and it was far from vintage in certain areas from Tipp as they looked zapped in the final quarter in particular.

Positives will come in the form of full games for the returning figures of Noel McGrath, Jason Forde, and Dan McCormack who looked sharp, while Mark Kehoe looked very impressive in his first-half performance with 2-1 registered in his name before he had to be withdrawn with a knee knock at half-time.

There were decent outings also for the likes of Cathal Quinn and David Kelly who made their league debuts, while Sean Hayes tried hard and after the game, Liam Cahill was happy with what his team got from the game and it will no doubt have settled in his mind what he has to work with this season.

After their more than respectable performance against All-Ireland champions Limerick in the previous round, Westmeath came to Thurles with a little bit of confidence that they could produce a similar effort and they managed to keep it very tight in the first quarter with Kevin Regan and Tommy Doyle being used well defensively.

Tipp did hit the first four points of the game through a brace of Jason Forde frees along a booming point from Brian McGrath before Mark Kehoe just skimmed the top of the crossbar with his point that could easily have ended up in the net in the eighth minute.

The atmosphere of the league matches in general have been very hit-and-miss over the years due to the non-competitive nature of many games. It was amplified even more here as there was very little for supporters to cheer early on, as Westmeath finally got on the board in the 14th minute through a David Williams free - their first shot of the day.

Sean Hayes was rewarded for some good early work as he set up a few of the initial scores of the half for Tipperary. Again, it was Mark Kehoe causing the trouble with his pace and his setup when through on goal was just put behind the stride of Hayes to his left, but the Kiladangan man picked up the pieces to slot over going away from goal.

Westmeath hit their first from play just prior to that Hayes point with Niall Mitchell firing over from the 45 and all in, they would have been happy with their position by the 23rd minute as they were just a point adrift with the Lakesiders hitting three points in a row just after Cathal Quinn pointed a goal chance which was blocked exceptionally well by Tommy Doyle with the goal gaping.

Two David Williams placed balls and a fine effort from Tommy Doyle - which was gifted to him straight from a stray Shelly puckout - kept the visitors in contention as they were just a single point behind with 13 minutes of the half to go.

However, the Westmeath resilience was soon broken and after a flurry of missed goal chances and some uncharacteristic wides from Jason Forde placed balls, Tipp struck three in a row from Forde (2) and a first of the day for the returning Noel McGrath were quickly followed for two quickfire goals from Mark Kehoe.

The first was well set up by Andrew Ormond who drew two defenders before setting Kehoe's lose on goal with a cute hand pass as Kehoe rattled the net, and he added to it less than a minute later with a second finishing a sweeping move from the forwards to roof it and send Tipp into a commanding lead.

Peter Clarke broke a six-minute scoring duct 60 seconds later for Westmeath but with scores from Conor Stakelum and Jason Forde (free) the Lakesiders then managed to hit three in a row before half-time from Joey Boyle and two from David Williams (1 free) had Tipp ahead 2-12 to 0-10.

Soon after the resumption, the results looked to be only going in one direction as the Tipperary men took control of the game and had five points scored in as many minutes from Jason Forde (2 frees), another from Noel McGrath and two from Conor Stakelum - the second of which the Thurles man will not wanted to see back as he managed to clear the crossbar with an open goal in front of him from five yards out.

That had Tipp ahead 2-17 to 0-11 and you would have thought that the Westmeath effort would wilt after that flurry of scores but they kept the home team honest in the next 15 minutes and traded eight scores with their hosts before they struck for a goal in the 53rd minute as a long ball into Niall Mitchell caused havoc and David Williams whipped on a loose ball to the back of the net.

Indeed, that direct ball to the big figure of Mitchell at full forward was working well and they had a penalty opportunity soon after to bring the game back into the melting pot in the 56th minute David Williams went for the major, but was denied by a smart save to his right by Rhys Shelly.

The withdrawal of Mark Kehoe at half-time took a lot of threat away from the Tipp attack and they looked leggy going into the final quarter even though Tipp responded with a sixth from play from Conor Stakelum and another Forde free, Westmeath had the tails up, and were going more direct which was bearing fruit.

The final ten minutes was all Westmeath in truth as the Tipp bench entered the fray to inject energy gradually, but it was the Westmeath subs who were livelier with David O’Reilly, Killian Doyle and another score from David Williams from play had the game at 2-24 to 1-18 with six minutes of normal time to go.

Mitchell was proving to be too much for the Tipp full-back line now and when he got onto yet another long deliver and fed Williams again to goal from close range in the 68th minute - which was quickly followed by two more Westmeath points - it was unbelievably just a four-point game with injury time ticking down.

However, a possible shock was knocked on the head from the following play and what was essentially the securing score for a finish with a big scramble around the square from a Rhys Shelly free breaking head height in front of Patrick Maher and the Lorrha man’s batted strike for goal deflected off Noel Conaty to the back of the net to end the contest.

That was all she wrote as Tipperary made it three wins from three and they can now look forward to a big round four clash against Limerick in the TUS Gaelic Grounds in two weekends time.

Scorers: Tipperary: Jason Forde (0-12, 0-11f), Mark Kehoe 2-1, Conor Stakelum 0-6, Patrick Maher 1-0, Noel McGrath 0-2, Brian McGrath, Sean Hayes, Cathal Quinn, John Campion all 0-1 each.

Westmeath: David Williams (2-12, 0-8f, 0-1 65), David O’Reilly 0-2, Killian Doyle (0-2, 0-1f), Niall Mitchell, Tommy Doyle, Peter Clarke, Joey Boyle, Ciaran Doyle all 0-1 each.

Tipperary: Rhys Shelly; Johnny Ryan, Barry Heffernan, David Kelly; Dan McCormack, Brian McGrath, Seamus Kennedy; Noel McGrath, Cathal Quinn; Sean Hayes, Jason Forde, Conor Stakelum; Andrew Ormond, Billy Seymour, Mark Kehoe.

Subs used: Patrick Maher for Kehoe (HT, inj); Joe Fogarty for Seymour (53); Cian O’Dwyer for Ormond (53); John Campion for Quinn (60); Enda Heffernan for B Heffernan (64).

Westmeath: Noel Conaty; Johnny Bermingham, Tommy Doyle, Conor Gaffney; Jack Gillen, Kevin Regan, Darragh Egerton; Shane McGovern, Peter Clarke; Owen McCabe, Darragh Clinton, Joey Boyle; Niall Mitchell, Eoin Keyes, David Williams.

Subs used: Ciaran Doyle for Keyes (HT); David O’Reilly for Clinton (HT); Aaron Craig for Gillen (48); Robbie Greville for McGovern (48); Killian Doyle for McCabe (58). 

Referee: Sean Cleere (Kilkenny)