Two-goal Lenihan delighted to be back helping the cause

PLAYER'S VIEW

Dunboyne man Darragh Lenihan has a special place in the history of Irish soccer. A unique place. He is the first man from Meath to play for the Republic of Ireland senior team. That was back in June 2018 when he replaced John O'Shea after 33 minutes during a friendly against the USA at the Aviva.

He has also managed to carve out a career for himself in English football with Blackburn Rovers and more latterly Middlesbrough. His brother Donal took a different route. He opted for Gaelic football with St Peter's and Meath but you wonder. What if he too had taken the soccer route? Darragh is a defender but Donal showed at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday he might, just might, have made an impact as a striker.

The two goals he bagged against Clare were scores goalmouth predators like John Aldridge or Alan Shearer would have been pleased to claim. It was the ravenous way he pounced to score his two goals that stuck in the mind, especially the first at the near post when he latched onto a cross from Jordan Morris and tucked the ball neatly away. There was a swagger, a confidence, a little movement of the hips that suggested he might have made his mark as a number nine. A striker who could torment flagging defences.

An accountant, Donal Lenihan made the calculations in a micro-second to bag that opening goal, judging the angle and the trajectory of the ball to perfection to ensure it ended up in the Clare net. That was after 11 minutes. Six minutes later the St Peter's player struck again to complete his double although it was a very different goal. this time Lenihan rose high to flick the ball home, a classic Gaelic football goal.

He laughed about it all afterwards when it was suggested to him he should send a copy of that opening goal to his brother in England. "Yes I'll send it onto him it might give him a few tips!" he said. "Jordy saw me pulling towards the near post. I had to pull on it and lucky enough it went in," he added somewhat modestly.

Lenihan has now played 54 competitive games for Meath since he made his debut back in 2014. He has always looked a natural finisher, a forward who can inflict real damage although it hasn't always worked out for him in the green and gold. Arguably he didn't always, as an out-and-out forward, get the supply of ball he needed to maximise his finishing instincts although before Sunday's game he had amassed a scoring rate of 11-107. Not bad for a forward in a team that really didn't make much of an impact in recent years.

He didn't get any game-time in the win over Cork in the first round and he wasn't even due to start against the Banner County on Sunday. Then opportunity knocked for him when he received a late call up to replace Diarmuid Moriarty - and how he made the most of his chance.

He may not have got as consistent a run playing for Meath as he would have liked in the past but he wasn't going to turn down a chance to be part of the new adventure under Colm O'Rourke. He was happy to once more answer in the affirmative once he got called into the camp.

He was asked about what it is like to play in a style of play, under the new management, where the ball is kicked quickly into the inside forwards like him. The way he spoke about the strategy suggested it suited him just fine.

"The way teams are set up now it is difficult at times but if our movement inside is good enough, the lads will kick it in. Colm, Stephen (Bray), Barry (Callaghan), the whole backroom team, encourage the lads out the field to get the ball into us quickly, good ball. It might be 50-50 ball but it's up to us inside to win it. We're supposed to be big, strong, quick enough to win it. Once it's played inside it's up to us to make it stick."

The St Peter's clubman readily admitted that while the team can gain tremendous confidence from having notched up two victories from their opening two games Sunday's display indicated there is still a great deal of work to be done by Meath players to hone and polish the new approach. Four goals is obviously a big haul - but eight points?

"As as set of forwards you would definitely want to be kicking more than the eight points we got today, that's something we really have to look at because we're not always going to get four goals in a game. You would definitely want to be adding a good few points to that while at the other end conceding less. We're two rounds into the league and we've four points on the board but we know we have a lot to work on over the next few weeks."

A few more goals from Lenihan like the two he netted on Sunday would certainly help the cause.