Meath lose out as three see red
Conditions conspired against Meath as they lost out 0-12 to 2-8 to Westmeath in the Leinster u-21 FC at St Loman's Park, Mullingar tonight in a contest that had three players, two from Meath, sent off.
All three saw red in the second-half with Brian Conlon sent to the bench after 49 minutes while in the closing stages Meath full-back Robin Clarke, along with Westmeath's Finbarr Coyne were also dismissed following a melee.
In a game played in very wet conditions the outcome hung on a incident after 55 minutes when Westmeath's Boidu Sayeh hit a shot from distance.
It looked like the player was going for a point but the greasy ball slipped into the net beyond the despairing grasp of Meath goalkeeper Jonathan Lynch.
At that stage Meath led by a point and it looked like they might just about do enough to secure victory however Sayeh's hopeful shot goalwards ended up in the back of the net and put Westmeath in front where they stayed.
Meath enjoyed most of the possession in the opening half with their short passing game punching holes in the Westmeath defence.
However they were rocked back when they conceded the first of the game's goals on 24 minutes when Coyne was fouled racing through and Ronan O'Toole expertly tucked the ball away from the penalty kick.
However at the break Meath led 0-7 to 1-3 with the help of points from the excellent Sean Reilly (two), Conor Moriarty (two), Thomas O'Reilly, Darragh Campion and David McLoughlin.
The balance of play in the second-half swung from one side to the other with O'Reilly (two) and McLoughlin (three) tagging on points however the Royal County wasted some very good possession and chances.
They paid a hard price for those unforced errors when Sayeh shot goalwards and watched as the ball ended up in the net.
Meath pushed hard in the closing minutes to try and rescue the situation with David McEntee having an effort rebound off the woodwork but Westmeath held firm.
Westmeath - Kevin Fagan; Peter Murray, Ronan Wallace, Boidu Sayeh (1-0); Daire Conway, Mark Kelly, Ian McGovern; Niall Mitchell, Liam O'Reilly; Shane Clavin (0-1), Ronan O'Toole (1-0), Eoin O'Brien; Finbarr Coyne (0-3), Ty Adamson, Darren Giles (0-3 frees). Subs - Ciaran Shanley (0-1) for Adamson half-time, Jack Kearney for O'Brien, Conor Dillon for Clavin both 39 mins, Matthew Darling for Conway 53m, Gavin Murray for McGovern 59m.
Meath - Jonathan Lynch (Moynalty); Eoin Green (Skryne), Robin Clarke (Duleek-Bellewstown), James Reilly (Gaeil Colmcille); James Mooney (Meath Hill), Brian Conlon (Simonstown), Cian Devlin (Summerhill); Sean Reilly (Moylagh 0-2), Sean Noonan (Seneschalstown); Eoin Smyth (Skryne), Thomas O'Reilly (0-3 two frees), Daragh Campion (Skryne 0-1); Conor Moriarty (Curraha 0-2), David McLoughlin (0-4), Fionn Reilly (Gaeil Colmcile). Subs - Daniel O'Neill (Wolfe Tones) for Devlin half-time, Conor Harnan for Greene 46m, David McEntee (Dunboyne) for Smyth, Ronan Jones (Dunboyne) for F Reilly 51m, Jason Scully (Oldcastle) for Moriarty 58m.
Referee - Seamus Mulhare (Laois).