Kerry progress but again fail to catch fire up front

Munster SFC Semi-final/Kerry 0-17 Tipperary 1-5: Manager Jack O'Connor was reluctant to be over-critical of Kerry's display yesterday but he can not have been over-impressed by a side who for the second championship game in a row have huffed and puffed before blowing minnows - this time Tipperary - away at Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney.

Kerry again failed to fire up front, failed to create a goal-scoring chance and once again Colm Cooper failed to register a score from play.

Kerry struggled for long periods and can thank their outstanding defence, superbly marshalled by Séamus Moynihan, and with Marc Ó Sé curbing Declan Browne, it was always going to be Kerry but it was the performance that worried the faithful. O'Connor was not too despondent afterwards but did admit Kerry were not where he expected them to be at this stage.

"I am not going to stand here lambasting fellows because we lacked fluency on the day. You are always looking forward to playing good football and we will be putting in a lot of hard work in preparation for the Munster final over the next few weeks. We are not where we want to be at present but we have time on our side. Look, it may be a motivational thing but we will have no problem with Cork and a Munster final.

"Again we went six points clear and we went into this kind of a malaise again for a while and then Tipperary got a goal and made it awkward for a while. In fairness in the second half, we stuck with it fairly well, and we pulled away comfortably enough in the end.

"I was happy enough at half-time because our attitude and our application was much better than the Waterford game, though our play was not flowing as much as we would have liked it to. There was nothing wrong with our attitude . . . I thought there were times we played good football today. We were reluctant to put ball into the full-forward line and that's a bit of a worry but we will be working at that."

As regards the substitutions O'Connor explained some were tactical: "There were a couple of fellows on yellow cards out there today, we were a shade worried about them and the fellows going on were just as good."

Kerry looked to be on fire early on but it proved to be a false dawn as they never hit the heights expected after a bright opening that saw them race 0-6 to no-score clear after 18 minutes but again it was the boot of Bryan Sheehan from placed balls that contributed to half Kerry's tally.

Defender Tomas Ó Sé and outstanding midfielder Kieran Donaghy had added one each while Paul Galvin was the only forward to score from play in this period.

Kerry were dominant at midfield where Darragh Ó Sé and Donaghy were lording matters and with the Kerry half-back line grabbing the breaks, Tipperary hardly mounted an attack. Then the moving of Browne to the 40 seemed to kick-start Tipperary's challenge and they opened their account in the 20th minute when Kevin Mulryan found Damien O'Brien, and centre back Robbie Costigan was at his shoulder to drill the ball to the Kerry net.

Browne kicked a superb point for Tipperary in the 25th minute after Sheehan had missed a kickable free but Kerry's problems were up front where their full-forward line could not win any ball and Michael Phelan and Andrew Morrissey were taking no prisoners on their championship debuts.

Sheehan and Browne swapped points before Moynihan scored a superb point after a defence-splitting pass from Tomás Ó Sé but a Browne free in injury-time left the Kerry supporters uneasy at the interval as the home held a slender 0-8 to 1-3 lead.

When Browne closed the gap with a free two minutes after the interval, the natives were getting restless.

Kerry struggled for long periods and really this was far from inspiring stuff as Sheehan replied with two more frees but precious little was happening in the Kerry forward line from play.

Then enter Mike Frank Russell and Kerry stepped it up a gear, though Cooper had still not scored and finished the game with a single point from a free.

Five unanswered points in a 10-minute spell from Kerry settled the issue.

Browne did miss a couple of frees but it mattered little as Aidan O'Mahony rounded off the Kerry total with a late point but Kerry have hardly created a goal-scoring chance in two outings to date and O'Connor will want a big improvement for their Munster final meeting with Cork on July 9th .

KERRY: D Murphy; A O'Mahony (0-1), M Ó Sé, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé (0-1), S Moynihan (0-1), M Lyons; D Ó Sé, K Donaghy (0-2); D O'Sullivan (0-1), E Brosnan, P Galvin (0-1); Darren O'Sullivan, B Sheehan (0-7, frees), C Cooper (0-1, free). Subs: M F Russell (0-1) for D O'Sullivan, E Fitzmaurice (0-1) for Galvin, R O'Connor for Brosnan, T Griffin for Donaghy, K Young for T O'Sullivan

TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; M Phelan, P King, A Morrissey; P Costigan (1-0), M Peters, I Maher; K Mulryan, E Hanrahan; P Austin, D O'Brien, B Lacey; B Mulvihill, D Browne (0-5, 2 frees), B Hickey. Subs: N Fitzgerald for Hickey, G Hannigan for Mulryan, A Fitzgerald for Hanrahan.

Referee: M Daly (Mayo).