Meath stroll to victory
Even though their cause was helped by Sean Murphy's 50th minute red card, Meath were vastly superior throughout this Leinster SFC quarter-final at Portlaoise as they inflicted a heavy 2-18 to 0-9 defeat on Carlow this evening.
Carlow were already 0-7 to 2-9 adrift when Sean Murphy foolishly lashed out at Donal Keogan and shortly after that they also lost Daniel St Ledger and Eoghan Ruth to black cards as the fight went out of them and Meath punished their indiscipline.
Meath could also afford the luxury of a missed a penalty, a disallowed goal and hitting the woodwork as they strolled to the win.
The opening half was a perfect example of just what Meath are capable of and also gave an indication of where their weaknesses lie when they come up against a well disciplined blanket defence.
In the open six minutes Meath were awesome. Their power, pace and percision of passing caused Carlow all sorts of problems, but then they dropped a gear for 20 minutes and allowed Carlow back into contention.
Mickey Newman opened the scoring from a simple free in the fourth minute and a minute later Thomas O'Reilly doubled the Royals lead before a brilliant turnover on the 45-metre line launched a great attack with Cillian O'Sullivan making it 0-3 to 0-0.
Bryan Menton looked to have a won a penalty in the move that led to O'Sullivan's score, but the move was an indication of what Meath were capable of when they injected pace into their game.
A six minute lull followed as Carlow tightened up and dropped even more men back, but in the 12th minute Menton found a way through to put four points between the sides.
It took Carlow until the 10th minute to have their first shot on goals, but three minutes later they were off the mark when sweeper John Murphy lofted over and immediately sprinted back to his own 20-metre line – that was Carlow's mindset.
Two outstanding points from Darragh Foley, either side of a relatively easy missed free, closed the gap to the minimum and when Foley converted a free after Sean Murphy was needlessly fouled the sides were level.
Meath were struggling to find a way through to goals, but a foul by Liam Roberts on Shane Gallagher gifted Newman an easy free to restore Meath's lead with their first score in almost 15 minutes and then two minutes later Ben Brennan took a chance from 43 metres and was rewarded with an excellent point to make it 0-6 to 0-4.
With their noses back in front Meath grew in confidence again.
Donal Keogan raided down the wings with real menace and he was on hand to provide the assist to the two goals that followed in less than three minutes.
After a half-hour a clever pass from Bryan McMahon picked out Keogan and he centred for Newman to gather on the run and blast to the net from close range and two minutes later O'Sullivan and Keogan combined to set-up Padraic Harnan for a palmed effort to the net.
Carlow were disshevelled at that stage, but they limited the damage to conceding just one more score from a Newman free to trail by 0-4 to 2-7 at the interval.
Carlow hinted their might make a game of it with the opening two points of the second period from a Diarmuid Walshe free and a super score from Sean Murphy.
However, Meath remained in control with points from Menton and Newman (free) either side of another Walshe free giving them their 2-9 to 0-7 cushion before Sean Murphy saw red.
The midfielder was Carlow's best player and without him they barely mustered a challenge as Shane Gallagher capped a brilliant game with a point before Newman added another from play to make it 2-11 to 0-7.
After St Ledger was dismissed for a black card foul Ruth pointed and Walshe forced Andy Colgan into a fine save, but Meath pushed on again.
Graham Reilly marked his appearance with the first of his two points before Newman had his penalty saved after Reilly had been fouled by Ruth which earned the Carlow man a black card.
Walshe closed Carlow's account from a '45', but in the closing 10 minutes Newman clipped over two more points, Reilly grabbed his second, Ronan Ryan had a goal disallowed and James Conlon marked his cameo with a hat-trick of scores to ensure a good evening's work for Meath.
SCORERS
Meath – Mickey Newman 1-6 four frees;Padraic Harnan 1-0; James Conlon 0-3; Bryan Menton 0-2; Graham Reilly 0-2; Ben Brennan 0-2 one free; Thomas O'Reilly 0-1; Cillian O'Sullivan 0-1; Shane Gallagher 0-1.
Carlow – Diarmuid Walshe 0-3 two frees, one '45'; Darragh Foley 0-3 one frees; John Murphy 0-1; Sean Murphy 0-1; Eoghan Ruth 0-1.
TEAMS
Meath - Andrew Colgan; Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Shane Gallagher; Padraic Harnan, Donal Keogan, Gavin McCoy; Bryan Menton, Adam Flanagan; Cillian O'Sullivan, Bryan McMahon, Ben Brennan; Sean Tobin, Mickey Newman, Thomas O’Reilly. Subs – Barry Dardis for O'Reilly 34 mins, Graham Reilly for Tobin 51m, Ronan Ryan for McCoy 55m, Darragh Campion for O'Sullivan 59m, James Conlon for Brennan 64m, Ethan Devine for Menton 69m.
Carlow - Robert Sansom; Liam Roberts, Shane Redmond, Conor Lawlor; Jordan Morrissey, Daniel St Ledger, Ciaran Moran; Sean Murphy, Eoghan Ruth; Darragh O'Brien, Sean Gannon, Conor Doyle; Paul Broderick, Darragh Foley, John Murphy Grange). Subs – Diarmuid Walshe for Broderick 14 mins, Conoir Crowley for O'Brien, Brendan Kavanagh for Lawlor both half-time, Darren Lunney for J Murphy (Tinryland) 61m, Black card – D St Ledger (replaced by Danny Moran 53m), E Ruth (John Murphy Tinryland) 59m)
Referee – Barry Cassidy (Derry).