Hurlers survive relegation exam

THE spectre of Meath dropping into the Nicky Rackard Cup evaporated in the bright summer"s sun at Cusack Park on Saturday as they strolled to a big win over struggling Roscommon. Hot favourites to win this Christy Ring relegation play-off, Meath duly obliged yet it wasn"t the stroll in the park the lop-sided scoreline suggests. At times Meath stuttered and stumbled before pulling away in the closing stages of the opening-half with a series of unanswered points to lead 1-11 to 1-6 at the break. It says a lot for Roscommon"s limitations that they failed to get a point after the resumption. However, Meath had little reason to jump with joy with the win or the nature of their performance. The players must have found it very difficult to motivate themselves for this tie and the fact that Westmeath were playing Derry in the semi-final of the Ring Cup at the same venue later in the afternoon only served to underline how much Meath were out of the loop. John Andrews and his selectors made wholesale switches from the Kerry game and it may need another game against stiffer opposition to discover whether some of the changes will work or not at this level. Mike Cole and Stephen Clynch watched the game from the stand after receiving red cards against Kerry. Also forced to watch from the sideline was Gerry McLoughlin a member of Meath"s backroom team who got a 24-week suspension following altercations at the end of the game in Tralee. At times in the opening 20 minutes Meath performed without any real confidence as passes went astray and attacks broke down yet they battled on and improved their game to ensure they will be in the Ring Cup again next year. There were some fine individual performances with Ger O"Neill giving his best display for some time in the green and gold. The Kilmessan forward finished with 2-4, a tally that underlined just how much pain he inflicted on a Roscommon backline who couldn"t find a way to contain him. O"Neill clipped over a couple of classy points, but it was his first goal on 44 minutes that was a thing of beauty. The player had a lot to do when he won the ball out on the right, he then switched on the after-burners, by-passed his marker and neatly lobbed the ball over the goalkeeper"s head with a classy flick. O"Neill"s talents have never been in doubt, he just hasn"t found his best form too often this year and it only added a touch of poignancy to the occasion that he was involved in a relegation play-off rather than at the other end of the Ring Cup spectrum. The second of O"Neill"s goals came late on when he nipped in to make the most of some terrible Roscommon defending to knock the ball to an empty net. It was one of the easiest goals he will get at inter-county level. Meath could hardly have asked for a better start to the afternoon when in the opening minute O"Neill cleverly passed to Nicky Horan who powered through before kicking to the net from a few metres out. With Neil Hackett out with injury the free-taking duties were taken up by Horan who went on to register 1-7. Despite that textbook start the Royal County led by only a point, 1-6 to 1-5, after 23 minutes as the Connacht side staged a mini-revival. At times the Meath defence were made to look very uncomfortable by some of Roscommon"s forward-plays. Thomas Reddington snapped up Roscommon"s opening goal after Stephen Quinn had saved well from Shane Sweeney. In the second-half Gerry Fallon and Connaughton made the most of some slack play in the Meath backline to find the net. Fallon did particularly well to snatch his goal on 53 minutes when he rounded Alan Ryan before firing high to the net. Earlier in the half Alan Cunniffe set up Connaughton for his goal which he also took well. Once O"Neill grabbed Meath"s second goal there was never any real danger of them getting caught. Kevin Fagan and Mickey Burke were lively performers for Meath in the opening-half and they clocked up two points apiece before they faded and David Crimmins as ever kept battling away in the engine room, always ready and able to fight for the cause. Noel Kirby took another step to nailing down a place by slotting over a point with Kevin Dowd also splitting the posts. The game was effectively over long before the final whistle as Meath secured their status for another year as the sun beamed down on Cusack Park. SCORERS Meath - N Horan 1-7 six frees; G O"Neill 2-4; K Fagan 0-2, M Burke 0-2, K Dunphy 0-2; N Kirby 0-1, K Dowd 0-1. Roscommon - T Reddington 1-2; G Fallon 1-1, M Connaughton 1-1; S Sweeney 0-2. TEAMS Meath - S Quinn; M Foley, D Donnelly, M Horan; T Fox, E Fitzgerald, J Boyle; A Ryan, D Crimmins; K Dowd, M Burke, N Kirby; G O"Neill, N Horan, K Fagan. Subs - P Geoghegan for Boyle 23 mins, P Gannon for Ryan 49m, K Dunphy for Kirby 58m, S Corrigan for Dowd 69m, M Dunne for Foley 69m. Roscommon - D Connell; S Curley, C Moran, M Keaveney; K Doolan, M Kelly, B Kelly; G Fallon, T Lennon; A Cunniffe, M Connaughton, S Sweeney; B Hanley, T Reddington, D Loughnane. Subs - G Waldron for Hanley 44 mins, A Craven for Curley 52m. REFEREE Tony Carroll (Offaly).