Revenge is sweet in the Garden for Royal hurlers

Three years after they last won the trophy Meath brought the Kehoe Cup back to the banks of the Boyne when they exacted revenge on Wicklow at Pearse Park, Arklow on Sunday. Last summer Wicklow lowered the Meath colours in the Christy Ring Cup with an inujury-time goal, but this time around the Royal visitors were always on top. This Kehoe Cup victory will not spark wild celebrations in places like Kildalkey, Kilmessan, Kiltale or Killyon. Nor will be provoke any civic receptions in the Fair Green in Navan or elsewhere for that matter. Yet the victory will give further confidence to a team who have been showing signs of finding some needed self-belief in recent outings. And how the events of the last two years have unfolded in the hurling world should make all those involved in Meath hurling wary of any complacency and dispel any remaining illusions that the county still has a long way to go to restore its former standing in the small-ball game. When Meath last won the Kehoe Cup in Portlaoise back in 2008 they defeated Carlow in the final – and deservedly so. But what happened? Carlow went on to greater things winning the Christy Ring Cup and generally moving up in the world. Meath meanwhile sank down to the Nicky Rackard Cup and while they have displayed intermittent signs of recovery in recent times, the road to recovery is clearly long and winding. Sunday's victory was deserved against a strong, highly-motivated, well-supported Wicklow side. Cillian Farrell's side worked extremely hard and this, along with some neat inter-passing, is the chief hallmark of his team. Despite playing against a strong, stubborn breeze in the opening half Meath surged into a 0-6 to 0-0 lead after 18 minutes. By half-time the visitors were in front, 0-10 to 1-4 and in control of affairs with points from Neil Hackett (four), Ger O'Neill, Joey Keena, Padraig Geoghegan, David Kirby (two) and Peter Durnin. The platform was there to push on and wrap up a big victory with the help of the elements. It didn't work out like that as Wicklow came storming back and twice in the second-half brought themselves within a point of their opponents. It took plenty of fire and brimstone from Meath to withstand the second-half resurgence and with Stephen Clynch, Hackett (four) and Durnin all splitting the posts with excellent efforts it was the visitors who prevailed. With only one small section of the press box open in Pearse Park this correspondent ended up standing on the terrace amid some of the sizeable Wicklow support who showed up for this one. The game was originally due to be played in Rathdrum but because of the heavy rain it was switched to Arklow and with its remarkably dry pitch, terraces and stand it was a ideal location. However one male Wicklow supporter bemoaned the fact that the game had been switched as he pointed out how his county had defeated Kildare there the previous week. He spoke of the big crowd that usually showed up in Rathdrum and created a “great†atmosphere . The local support turned out in good numbers on Sunday but they moaned and groaned a lot in the opening stages as they watched their team rack up seven wides playing with the wind. It took Wicklow 19 minutes to register their first point from the impressive Geoffrey Bermingham. “Now your sucking diesel,†shouted the male Wicklow supporter who had started to shout out a few expletives, most of them aimed at his own team. The Meath midfield and half-forwards had mopped up a lot of possession during that opening spell with Hackett in the mood to punish any indiscretions committed by Wicklow from frees. Hackett had got his chance after injury forced Nicky Horan to sit this one out and the Dunboyne man was able to resume the free-taking duties with a high-degree of accuracy. Playing with the swirling wind at their backs caused problems for both sides with the Wicklow players wasting good chances because they weren't able to gauge it properly in the opening half. Hackett wasn't immune to the vagaries of the elements either as he fired successive '65s' wide. “There's plenty of room for it out there,†shouted the Wicklowman with glee after the second of Hackett's efforts had sailed wide. And the same Wicklow fan was in seventh Heaven after 26 minutes when Ronan Keddy lofted in a long and hopeful ball from midfield. Shane McGann and Willie Mahady looked with some amazement at each other when the ball dropped into the net. Now it was game on. The busiest of the two goalkeepers was former out-field player Wayne O'Gorman with most of his duties made up of making clearances. McGann, as is his way, made one excellent save early on displaying his skills to stop an Andy O'Brien piledriver from entering the net. The nearest Meath came to conjuring up a goal came late in the game when a neat interchange of passes between Geoghegan and Kirby ended with Ger O'Neill getting a sight on goal. His shot beat O'Gorman but the sliotar was blocked on the line by a defender and scrambled clear. Mike Cole, who didn't look entirely happy in his corner-forward position, also looked like he would find a way through only for his shot to be smothered. A couple of memorable long-range efforts from Clynch, Durnin and Hackett in the second-half kept Meath in front – where they stayed until the final whistle. Meath – S McGann; W Mahady, P Fagan, D Donoghue; M Horan, S Clynch (0-1, free), M Lynch; J Boyle, G O'Neill (0-1); J Keena (0-1), N Hackett (0-8, five frees), P Geoghegan (0-1); M Cole, D Kirby (0-2), P Durnin (0-2). Subs - D Doran for Cole 40 mins, N Kirby for Keena 67m. Wicklow – W O'Gorman; J Connors, G Keogh, B Cuddihy; G Bermingham (0-1), L Kennedy, C O'Neill; E Kearns, T Doyle; R Keddy (1-0), J O'Neill (0-8, three frees), E Dunne; A O'Brien (0-1), D Hyland (0-1), A Driver. Subs – N Driver for C O'Neill half-time, R Nolan for Dunne 49mins. Referee – Paud MacDubhuir (Carlow).