Royals recover to draw with Roscommon
Meath and Roscommon served up a 2-14 each draw as they marked the official opening of St Vincent's of Ardcath's magnificent Masterson Park in front of a large crowd this afternoon.
Ultimately the game ended in a draw as referee Ciaran Branagan allowed just enough injury-time for Roscommon to snatch a late leveller from Cian McKeon in the third minute of added time to deny Meath what would have been a smash-and-grab victory.
Fielding none of the team that started the NFL Div 2 final against Donegal, McEntee's men stuck gamely with a strong Roscommon side despite conceding a third minute goal to Andrew Glennon after Ethan Devine had opened the scoring inside 30 seconds.
Devine added Meath's second score and after Niall Kilroy stretched Roscommon's lead Meath battled back to parity with Graham reilly and Sean Tobin (free) on target.
Tobin was one of those players who will have done his chances no harm with a hard working, enterprising display, but in the last 14 minutes of the half Roscommon outscored their hosts by 1-4 to 0-0 with Cathal Heneghan grabbed his side's second goal to ensure a 2-5 to 0-4 interval lead.
Within 27 seconds of the restart Reilly had Meath off the mark again, but Roscommon fired three of the next four points with Donie Smith (two, the second a fly kicked effort after Mark Brennan made a wonder save to tip his goalbound effort onto the crossbar) and Enda Smith cancelling out another Tobin free to make it 2-8 to 0-6 at the three-quarters stage.
James Conlon kept Meath in touch with a point and when Padraic Harnan intercepted a pass in midfield he surged forward and combined with Reilly and Tobin to set up Na Fianna's Owen McDonnell for a fine goal.
That four point margin was maintained as Tobin (two) and Reilly exchanged scores with Enda Smith, Donie Smith and Colin Compton, but when Conor Cox and Compton made it 2-13 to 1-10 with six minutes remaining it looked as if Roscommon would claim the spoils.
However, Meath dug deep with Gavin McCoy and Adam Flanagan lofting over huge scores before Reilly capitalised on a poor kickout and laid off to Conlon who finished to the net to restore parity.
McCoy edged Meath ahead 30 seconds into injury-time, but referee Branagan allowed enough time for McKeon to conjure up an equaliser and the spoils were shared.
Meath - Mark Brennan; Thomas McGovern, Shane Glynn, Mickey Burke; Gavibn McCoy, Padraic Harnan, Sean Reilly; Adam Flanagan (0-1), Ethan Devine (0-2); Owen McDonnell (1-0), Sean Tobin (0-4 three frees), Jason Scully; Graham Reilly (0-4), Danny Quinn, James Conlon (1-1). Subs - Eoin Lynch for Devine 9 mins, Robin Clarke for S Reilly, Sean Curran for Glynn both half-time, Ross Ryan for Quinn 50m, Reilly for Tobin 61m.
Roscommon - D O'Malley; S Mullooly, Conor Daly, B Stack; R Daly, T O'Rourke, N Daly; S Killoran (0-1), C Cregg; G Patterson, A Glennon (1-2 two frees), E Smith (0-3); C Heneghan (1-0), N Kilroy (0-1), A Lyons. Subs - D Smith (0-3 one free free), C Compton (0-2), C Cox (0-1), C McKeon (0-1).
Referee - Ciaran Branagan (Down).