Minors bidding for place in last four

IF the opening round heroics against Offaly are anything to go there should be plenty of fireworks produced when Meath take on Westmeath in the Leinster MFC quarter-final at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday. That game even produced what is referred to in the language of the pressbox as the 'dreaded ET' or what is otherwise known as extra-time providing the supporters who showed up full value for their money. The likelihood is that there won"t be quite as much drama produced as there was when Meath confronted the Faithful County in a first round encounter at the same venue late last month. It would be difficult to imagine another game in this year"s minor campaign that had as much exciting play, full-on entertainment and excellent scores. Lets recount how that all-action game unfolded. Meath led for long spells only for their opponents to fight back and edge in front going into the last few minutes. Offaly had chances to kill the game off in normal time. They didn"t take them. The visitors still led by a point going into the closing seconds normal time. With time almost up Na Fianna"s Harrison Silke strode forward to arrow the ball between the posts for a last-gasp equalising point that earned Meath an unlikely draw. In extra-time Pat Coyle"s young colts found another stride and ended up winning on the relatively comfortable 0-18 to 1-11 scoreline. There was also two red cards shown in that game, one to an Offaly player with Meath"s promising full-back Ciaran Lenehan getting a chance for an early shower late in the second-half. The young Skryne defender received two yellow cards against Offaly and he is eligible to line out against Westmeath who defeated Carlow in the first round. Coyle said the Meath defence against Offaly was 'awesome' and that says a lot about how the 80 minutes of football unfolded. At times only some steadfast defending prevented Offaly from running riot. Meath were also helped by some woeful shooting by the Offaly forwards who spurned a series of top-notch chances, particularly in the opening quarter. Meath also had their problems in getting a firm foothold around midfield and their eager opponents won a fair percentage of breaking ball. The amount of chances Offaly created was also another feature of a memorable joust. These are all issues Coyle and his selectors will have looked closely at over the past few weeks. Sources suggest that there has been plenty of shooting practice carried out on the training ground as the Meath management have sought to find a more clinical element among their forwards. Coyle is preparing his troops for a big test against Westmeath and he has got some previous form to base his views on. 'Westmeath have shown that they are a very good side all the way through the age groups, they beat us last year in the Gerry Reilly Tournament and it will much the same teams that will be facing us this time around and I"ve heard they have found a couple of new players as well,' he told the Meath Chronicle. The evidence suggests that if Meath can get a regular supply of ball into the danger areas they have the type of forwards who can make hay in front of the posts. Silke ended up with six points against Offaly, all from play and Liam Tolan is a real livewire capable of taking scores or drawing frees from harassed defenders. Character is another aspect of this Meath team"s make up that helped them get through the storm whipped up by Offaly. Even when the game appeared to be slipping from their grasp they kept plugging away. Extra-time also revealed how Meath have a considerable strength-in-depth and reserves of fitness. Simonstown Gaels player Padraig McKeever was one of those to be called from the bench. He made a considerable impression when he came on in the second-half of normal time and is sure to feature again. Meath have few injury problems with St Vincent"s / Curraha player David Coyle (knee) and club colleague Kevin Mallon (hamstring) the only two players on the doubtful list. A clean bill of health would be a big help as the young Royals seek to get past over another big hurdle. LAST GAME Meath 0-18 Offaly 1-11 Meath - C McHugh; K Mallon, C Lenehan, D Coyle; G Kennedy, B Menton (0-1), M McCormack; D Carroll, A Mahon (0-1); E Boyle (0-1), M O"Sullivan, C Devereux (0-1); L Tolan (0-3), H Silke (0-6), S Tobin (0-1). Subs - P McKeever (0-1) for O"Sullivan, S Gillespie (0-1) for Tobin, S Kavanagh for Mahon, R Rahill for Lenehan, D Larkin for Kavanagh, O"Sullivan for Silke.