Royal County ladies to face Armagh

These are troubling times for ladies football in Meath again as they face into the All-Ireland series via the back door route on Sunday evening with a tricky contest against Armagh at Breffni Park in a game that will be shown live on TG4 at 6.45. Having maintained their senior status earlier this year with a relegation final victory over Waterford, Meath could find themselves in a similar situation again if they lose on Sunday. After winning that relegation tussle against Waterford, Meath received a much-needed boost to their flagging confidence and with Brendan Dardis back at the helm they approached the Leinster SFC with renewed optimism. However, the frailties that have been symptomatic of Meath in recent years came back to haunt them in Navan on Saturday, 4th July. They lacked the necessary spark and handed Dublin a comfortable passage to the Leinster final. The concession of goals in that 1-8 to 5-6 defeat proved to be Meath's major undoing. Manager Dardis was unhappy with the quality of defending against Dublin and will hope to rectify those deficiencies against Armagh. Meath faced Armagh at this stage of the competition a couple of years ago and came away with a two-point win - a similar outcome would be welcomed on Sunday. In a strange move for the Dublin game, Dardis opted not to risk goalkeeper Irene Munnelly, who had a suspected broken wrist although she did come on in the closing stages, and put one of the county's leading defenders, Louise McKeever between the posts. That move didn't work as Dublin ran the Meath rearguard ragged and got in for three goals in the opening period. Despite that setback there is still plenty of potential on the Meath team to suggest they could enjoy a decent run in the All-Ireland qualifiers, starting with Armagh on Sunday. Players of the calibre of Mary and Philomena Sheridan, Grainne Nulty, Jenny Rispin, Katie O'Brien and Elaine Duffy have enough firepower to boost Meath to victory, but it is in defence where they need to tighten up. If McKeever is re-deployed to her usual defensive role and players adopt a tighter attitude then victory over Armagh is achievable. While Leinster titles continue to elude Meath at senior level, the u-16 team captured the provincial crown two weeks ago with an emphatic win over Dublin to set up an All-Ireland semi-final against Cork on Sunday. Ollie Bowe's girls have been outstanding and will be slight favourites to overcome a Cork outfit that defeated Kerry to win the Munster title. However, Meath may well be without Jacinta Maher who is playing Olympic handball in Germany and they will rely heavily on the excellence of Kellie Allen, Bridgetta Lynch, Adrienne McCann and Katie Callaghan to secure a final spot. A venue has yet to be decided for this game with a throw-in time of 1.0 expected.