Tipperary under 21 footballers captured their first ever Munster title with a famous 1-7 to 1-6 victory over Kerry.

At Austin Stack Park Tralee, the visitors - aided by a strong wind - led by 1-4 to 1-2 at the break. Managed by Kerry native John Evans, they held on bravely to record a historic win.

This was a tense encounter, with no quarter given. A crowd of 2,560 was on hand to witness history in the making. Half-time substitute Shane Egan made a telling contribution for the winners, clipping over two second-half points.

Those scores left the Premier County in a 1-7 to 1-5 lead with time almost up. Kerry mustered a point through Barry John Walsh but were unable to get any further change out of a resilient Tipp rearguard.

Having lost the last three provincial finals at this level, Tipp were certainly entitled to celebrate at the final whistle.

John Evans' charges played with the wind in the first half but got off to the worst possible start when Paul Geaney netted for the Kingdom in the seventh minute. Further scores from Edmond Walsh and Geaney had the hosts ahead by 1-2 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter. Things were looking ominous at this stage...

However, Conor Sweeney reduced the deficit with a first Tipp score in 18 minutes and Bernard O'Brien got the goal that brought the underdogs right back into it. Then Alan Moloney tagged on two points to give the visitors a 1-4 to 1-2 interval lead.

Kerry made a determined start to the second half, with a Keane free and a further effort from Patrick Curtin levelling the game by the 38th minute. They took the lead four minutes later but Sean Carey's free had Tipp back on terms.

From there, they held their nerve superbly to complete a truly momentous victory.

Tipperary - K Kenrick; R Kiely, C McDonald, D Lynch; P O'Dwyer, J Coghlan, D O'Dwyer; A Moloney (0-2, 1f), P Acheson; S Carey (0-2, 2f), B O'Brien (1-0), A Matassa; C Sweeney (0-1, f), B O'Meara, M O'Dwyer. Subs - S Egan (0-2) for O'Meara, T Hanley for O'Brien.

Kerry - T Mac an tSaoir; P Crowley, K O'Connor, B McGuire; P O'Connor, B Shanahan, J Lyne; J Buckley, E Walsh (0-1); P O'Donoghue, BJ Keane (0-2, 2f), M Geaney; D Casey, BJ Walsh (0-1, f), P Geaney (1-1). Subs - P Curtin (0-1) for O'Donoghue, G O'Keefe for Geaney.

Ref - C Lane (Cork). Tweet

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