1st half horror show as Tipp topple Cats Laois up next for Lyng’s men

slotted a free from out on the left side, before Jason Forde hit a brace and the lively Jake Morris also pointed to leave the Premier County up by three with 17 minutes on the clock. Drennan then struck over another placed ball after Tullaroan’s Mossy Keoghan was crudely halted in his tracks.

A poor clearance out of the Kilkenny defence gave Noel McGrath the opportunity to ri e over a point under no pressure. Lisdowney’s Aidan Tallis then turned a goal-bound Jason Forde shot over the bar, but was unable to prevent the Silvermines player raising the rst green ag of the day minutes later. Seamus Callanan took control of the sliotar before sending an accurate pass to Forde who made no mistake in blasting to the Cats net.

Derek Lyng replaced Cian Kenny with omastown’s John Donnelly as he sought to arrest Tipp’s physical dominance around the middle third, and this move paid dividends across the rest of the contest as Donnelly showed desire and ght as he struck 0-4. e Sash’s Shane Walsh red over a point on 28 minutes, but the attacker was getting little change out of the Tipp defence. Kilkenny keeper Tallis then denied Jake Morris a certain goal with a ne stop, Jason Forde converted the resulting ‘65 to give the visitors a 7-point lead with 30 minutes played.

Billy Ryan then went on a strong run out on the left side and showed great skill and composure to split the posts as the home crowd searched for something to cheer.

Two more Tipp scores followed in quick succession, Roscrea’s Alan Tynan’s e ort was built on by sub John Campion who ri ed over from distance. Seven minutes of additional time echoed around UPMC Nowlan Park and more damage was to be in icted on Derek Lyng’s charges before the relative safety of the changing rooms.

Jason Forde hit another brace while John Donnelly did likewise for the Cats, but the big score in additional time would come from Tipp as they put the game seemingly beyond Kilkenny’s reach. Padraig Walsh played a pass in the direction of captain for the day Darragh Corcoran, but the Shamrocks man wasn’t as sharp to the sliotar as he should have been, which allowed Alan Tynan to nip in and secure possession, before passing to Conor Bowe whose shot was brilliantly saved by Tallis, but the parried ball was collected by Jake Morris who calmly nished to the net. e Cats opened the scoring in the second half thanks to a third point of the game from John Donnelly,

From the restart, Morris collected the ball and split the posts for the nal score of a shambolic rst half for Kilkenny. Carlow whistler Patrick Murphy blew for the interval with the Kilkenny faithful in shock as their side trudged o trailing 2-13 to 0-7, twelve points in arrears.

A double change was made by Kilkenny boss Lyng as he searched for the balance that would allow his charges to complete. David Blanch eld and Conor Fogarty replacing Conor Heary and Killian Doyle respectively.