Conor Sweeney was delighted with the character Tipperary showed in edging out Derry this evening to book a first ever All-Ireland SFC quarter-final appearance.

Sweeney struck a late winning point for Liam Kearns' underdogs after Eoghan Brown's 66th minute goal looked to have broken their resistance.

"[Conceding leads] is something that has happened to us quite a lot over the years," he explained to Sky Sports. 

"We'd build up a lead and then take the foot off the pedal. When they got the [second] goal I knew we'd bring it back. We've had a good few knocks down through the years, losing players and stuff. It just goes to show the bottle in the lads. They pulled it out of the bag again to get to the quarter-final."

He added: "It's hard to gather your thoughts straight away, but it was a savage game. There was huge intensity to it.

"We spoke at half-time that we were a little disappointed that we had eight wides in comparison to Derry's one. We said we have to take our chances if we want to win. I think that was the difference in the end really."

The corner forward said the loss of key players at the start of the year made Tipp's achievement all the more special.

"It was tough at the start, for any county to lose good players it's tough. And for a so-called weaker county to lose some of your best players and big men down the middle. That was always going to be difficult to fill. The lads left for their own reasons and that's fair enough. It just goes to show that the lads we have are just as capable and I'm glad the lads showed it today."

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