Nevertheless, he expressed his pride in the performance and the way the players dealt with the early loss due to a quad injury to fullback Conor Prunty.
“We should have won that match. We were four points ahead, with a lead in time. After the goal I knew it would be a draw. Even if they fell over their laces, they got a free one. That's no problem.
“I don't blame them or the referee, but we should have finished that game. I am extremely proud of the boys. They fought very hard, worked very hard.
“We went down in the second half and came back, we fought and got back into it. I am extremely proud of that. This is a different bunch of guys; they are resilient. They are deflated, they are disappointed because they know we should have won. But that's how it goes.”
He said he had expected a response from Tipperary after their 15-point thrashing of All-Ireland champions Limerick in the first round.
Citing four instances where Tipperary could have scored goals with the match still on the line, he added: “If they had scored two out of three goals it wouldn't have been anywhere near the same result last time . They probably felt bad about getting the punishment they got, but if they got two or three breaks…
“Their work rate today was off the charts, they did some other things today that they didn't do last week, threw a few curve balls at us that took us some time to figure out and get. We did a few things they couldn't get. It was probably more tactical than you realize.”
The result leaves the group wide open, although Cork are almost adrift as the only team without points after two rounds.
Fitzgerald believes Waterford can reach a Munster final if they beat Limerick or Clare – even though they are both away from home – in their remaining matches.
“If we get another win we'll be in a Munster final. We'll be close enough, not far. Can we qualify with three points? We could. Is there any chance this won't be the case if we don't win another game? There is. There are many permutations.
“It's funny. I was listening to Liam Sheedy (former Tipp manager) on Sunday Sport and they were talking about Clare and Limerick qualifying. He said, 'Of course it's a given. Waterford is going to Clare and Clare will definitely to win.' I said, 'Of course we might as well not show up at all (laughs) But we'll come by.'
“That will be a big event. There will be 20,000 in Cusack Park. The respect I have for their players is enormous, but we're going to go out there and give everything we can.
“The best of this year compared to last year, no matter what we do in the last game with something to fight for. We haven't been beaten in the Munster Championship in the last three games so we are making progress,” said Fitzgerald.