Lyng has no Score to settle

Derek doesn't dwell on Tipp 'point' controversy after exit

- BY GARRY DOYLE

THE scene at the end was like the morning after Glastonbury.

There were bodies stretched out on Chainnigh the grass, dead to the world.

Above them Tipp players embraced, smiling amongst themselves. Congratulating one another.

Celebrating.

As they did so, men dressed in black and amber, stared into the distance looking for something they knew they would never get.

And to their left young Darragh McCarthy cried tears of joy mixed with relief. TJ Reid was mere yards away from him, staring in disbelief.

Robbed. Deflated.

At 37, Reid may never get back here. Nor may 35-year-old Eoin Murphy.

They know they let this one slip.

Two points up with a man advantage and eight minutes of regulation-time remaining, the deal was waiting to be sealed.

But Kilkenny couldn't find a pen to sign the contract.

Tipp, on the other hand, had the ink ready to go.

All the key moments belonged to them. Four goals arrived when they were needed most.

The inevitable roar which followed each strike got increasingly louder as the game wore on.

The noise accompanying John McGrath's opener was ear-splitting: the sounds which followed Jason Forde's and McCarthy's strikes even more powerful.

But they all came in the first half when there was time left on the clock and didn't compare to the escalating sounds as the second half wore on.

First there was the gasp when it dawned on the Tipp fans, who formed the bulk of the support, that McCarthy was getting a red card after his loose tackle on Eoin Murphy.