Disappointing result

Meath hurlers slumped to another defeat on Sunday when they bowed out of the subsidiary competition, the Kehoe Shield, against Kildare at Pairc Tailteann. The only light at the end of what is starting to look like a long tunnel is the absence of the Kilmessan players and that could continue for the first two rounds of the NHL Div 3. If Kilmessan win next Sunday against Cappataggle in the All-Ireland club IHC semi-final at Athleague, then they will be in action in the decider on Sunday, 15th February at Croke Park. Meath"s NHL campaign opens against Kildare at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday, 8th February and the following Sunday they travel to take on Mayo. With only five games in the NHL Div 3, Meath cannot afford any slip ups and if they were to lose the first two games, it"s very unlikely that they would feature in the knock-out phase of the competition. And based on Sunday"s evidence, the players available to manager TJ Reilly are not good enough at the moment to win the first two games unless they find some dramatic improvement. The first task for the manager is to address the two yellow cards which Kildalkey"s Padraig Keogh collected in the opening two tests. Last week he was introduced as a substitute in the Kehoe Cup against Down and departed and this time around he started at centre-back and survived until four minutes into the second-half when he received a yellow card from Westmeath referee James McGrath. Kildare fared even worse as they had three players yellow-carded. Interval substitute David Ryan lasted only two minutes while his replacement, Fiachra O Muineachain survived for 15 minutes before he also made it into the departure lounge. While Meath lacked nothing in effort, they were deficient in almost every other department and finished with 10 wides, six less than Kildare. Six points came from play, but too many chances were wasted with the sliotar falling short frequently and into the hands of a grateful Kildare custodian, Damien Byrne, who looked far from assured between the posts. At the other end Kildalkey"s Gary McNally made his first start and he produced a competent performance behind a full-back line which was always under pressure. Kevin O"Rourke ended up at full-back after Michael Foley was deployed as a man-marker on Kildare"s Oisin Lynch and both players showed enough to suggest that they could be useful additions to the panel. Drumree"s Brian Coughlan endured a torrid hour. Sean Corrigan and James Boyle were solid in the half-back line either side of Keogh who laboured against Kildare"s top scorer Stephen Lyons who claimed five points, three from play. That was where the good news ended for Meath. They were completely out of it at midfield where Benny Dixon and Noel Kirby started, David Crimmins spent some time there also. Although there was plenty of determination, there was no fluency Neil Hackett took the scoring plaudits for Meath and his eight-point haul brought his tally for the two games to 15. Only two of Sunday"s points were from play while the other marksmen were Dave Kirby (two), Peter Durnin and Ciaran Dunphy. Meath were ahead at the interval by 0-7 to 1-3 with Hackett (five), Kirby and Dunphy on the mark. Points from Tony Murphy (two) and Richie Hoban and a Kieran Divilly goal sustained Kildare against the elements. Divilly"s goal could have been disallowed as he appeared to charge with the sliotar, but the referee didn"t seem to notice. Kildare were slightly better than Meath in the second-half and by the end of the third-quarter were ahead by 1-8 to 0-8 after the hosts could only manage a paltry Durnin point from play during that period. Meath upped the tempo sufficiently to share eight fourth-quarter points with Kildare, but it was evident for most of the second-half that there would be no more competitive games for TJ Reilly"s men ahead of the opening round of the league in three weeks time. Gaeil Colmcille substitute Denis O"Neill could turn out to be a useful addition to the panel. Introduced with only 20 minutes remaining, he showed some electrifying pace and on at least two occasions raced into promising positions only to lose possession. SCORERS Kildare - S Lyons 0-5 (two '65s"), K Divilly 1-0, O Lynch 0-3 (one free), T Murphy 0-2, D Harney 0-1, R Hoban 0-1. Meath - N Hackett 0-8 (five frees, one '65"), D Kirby 0-2, P Durnin 0-1, C Dunphy 0-1. THE TEAMS Kildare - D Byrne; P Reidy, J Doran, K Chan; M Maloney, D Cafferty, D Horan; R Hoban, D Harney; K Divilly, S Lyons, L Harney; O Lynch, T Murphy, J Gleeson. Subs - P Divilly for K Divilly, D Ryan for Cafferty (both half-time); F O Muineachain for Ryan (yellow card 37 mins); L Shinners for O Muineachain (yellow card 52m); K Curran for Gleeson 61m; K Bracken for Doran (yellow card 67m). Meath - Gary McNally; Kevin O"Rourke, Michael Foley, Brian Coughlan; Sean Corrigan, Padraig Keogh, James Boyle; Benny Dixon, Noel Kirby; Dave Kirby, Neil Hackett, Ciaran Dunphy; David Raleigh, David Crimmins, Peter Durnin. Subs - Ger Murphy for D Raleigh 26 mins; Eoin Potterton for Keogh (yellow card 39 mins); Denis O"Neill for Dixon 50m; TJ Lynch for Dunphy 55m. REFEREE James McGrath (Westmeath)