Three see red as Meath finish campaign with defeat

Three players were went off as Meath completed their NHL Div 2A campaign by losing, 1-13 to 0-20, against Carlow at Trim today. 

Meath's Keith Keoghan saw red in injury time towards the end of the opening half. In injury time near the end of the game Meath's Darragh Kelly and Carlow's John Michael Nolan were also dismissed by referee Gearoid McGrath. 

The contest was very physical but there were few, what could be termed bad fouls, with the red cards shown after confrontations between players. 

Keoghan's dismissal, which surprised many in the crowd, really put Meath under pressure. They went into the half-time break 0-7 to 0-8 behind and in the second-half Carlow used their extra man well to steadily add to their account. 

With James Doyle and Chris Nolan between them contributing 10 points to Carlow's account the visitors drew away from the home side as the second-half wore on. Meath did give themselves some hope when in the 63rd minute Anthony Forde superly finished to the net to leave the Royal County 1-12 to 0-19 behind but it proved a case of too little too late. 

Jacke Regan finished up with 10 points, seven frees, for Meath while Forde, Paddy Conneely and Sean Quigley also pointed. In reality Meath had nothing to play for expect pride and they restored some of that with this battling display following their big loss to Kerry. 

See match report, manager Nick Fitzgerald's outspoken reaction to the referee's performance and pictures in this week's Meath Chronicle.