OVER SIX MONTHS after one of their greatest days when they achieved Munster final glory, the Tipperary footballers suffered a major setback today with relegation to Division 4 of the football league for 2022.
Tipperary lost out in their Division 3 relegation play-off away to Longford this afternoon by 1-13 to 0-9, the home side claiming a deserved victory as they finished the game strongly.
David Power’s Tipperary team will now be plying their trade in the bottom division next spring, where they will join Cavan. Mickey Graham’s team also won a provincial final in memorable fashion on the same day last November, but lost out to Wicklow in a play-off yesterday.
The crucial score of today’s game at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park arrived in the 47th minute when Dessie Reynolds found the net for Longford. That strike pushed the home team in front 1-8 to 0-8 and they went on to outscore Tipperary by 0-5 to 0-1 from there.
Reynolds hit 1-2 for Longford while Darren Gallagher and Rian Brady scored 0-3 apiece. Conor Sweeney was top scorer for Tipperary with 0-4, while Michael Quinlivan did start the game but was sent to the sin bin during the first half.
Longford have shown impressive resilience after losing their opening game by 16 points to Derry but recovered to preserve their Division 3 status.
In Division 4, Enda McGinley saw his Antrim team claim promotion with success over Waterford by 1-15 to 0-11 in Dungarvan, earlier today.
Antrim’s early scoring burst proved crucial as they raced in front 0-7 to 0-0. That laid the foundations for their eventual win after a game where they were ahead 0-9 to 0-4 at half-time.
Odhran Eastwood scored the only goal of the game in the second half as he finished with 1-5 for Antrim. Tyrone All-Ireland winner McGinley has clinched promotion in his first season in charge of Antrim, joining his old manager Mickey Harte in Division 3 next year, after Harte’s Louth team won their play-off yesterday against Carlow.
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