Derry thunder back to the top

Derry 1-26 Tipperary 0-2: Derry rubber-stamped their passport back to Division One football at Ballinascreen yesterday with a hammering of Tipperary that was every bit as one-sided as the scoreline would suggest.

Derry captain Paddy Bradley was the punisher in chief with a personal tally of 1-13 in a game that demonstrated exactly why it was so important for the Ulster team to escape Division Two.

Tipperary trailed by 0-2 to 0-1 after seven minutes when Ian Barnes' free responded to early Derry scores from Paddy Bradley and Conleth Gilligan.

It took Séamus McCarthy's men an hour of football to register their second score with Derry adding a total of 1-23 in the intervening period. Bradley, Gilligan, Gavin Donaghy, Mark Lynch and Paul Murphy scored almost at will as Derry led by 0-14 to 0-1 at the break.

The Munster side came out for the second half hoping at least to salvage some pride but a flowing move involving at least 10 passes saw Bradley fire home the game's only goal within 90 seconds of the restart and the onslaught continued unabated until the closing whistle.

DERRY: B Gillis; K McGuckin, K McCloy, G O'Kane; P Wilson (0-1), N McCusker (0-1), P Kelly; F Doherty, J McBride; G Donaghy (0-2), C Gilligan (0-2, one 45), P Murphy (0-4); Paul Bradley, Paddy Bradley (1-13, seven frees), M Lynch (0-2). Subs: P McFlynn for McBride (yellow card, 24 mins), Fergal McEldowney (0-1) for Gilligan (49 mins), C Moran for Donaghy (50 mins), E Burke for Lynch (52 mins), S Kelly for McCusker (54 mins), Padraig Murphy for Paul Bradley (54 mins).

TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; D Byrne, N Curran, P King; P Morrisey, B Lacey, R Costigan; N Fitzgerald, E Hanrahan; I Barnes (0-1, free), K Mulryan (0-1), P Foley; J Shanahan, S Murphy, D O'Brien. Subs: H Coughlan for Barnes (21 mins), P Brennan for O'Brien (42 mins), M Lynagh for J Shanahan (49 mins).

YELLOW CARD: Derry: McBride (24 mins). Tipperary: N Fitzgerald (24 mins).

Referee: G McKenny (Louth).