Young Royals edged out by Sky Blues
The cold and wintry weather that's prevailing these days might be unfamiliar for spring but the result tonight at Pairc Tailteann was familiar tale of woe for Meath football in the context of playing teams from Dublin.
A few weeks ago the Dublin seniors paid a visit to the Brews Hill venue and prevailed in the NFL. This evening in the Leinster MFC Dublin once again won, 2-9 to 0-11.
A couple of hunded people braved the wind, the rain, the biting cold to show up for this one and they saw Dublin run out deserving winners helped greatly by an early goal after just two minutes expertly served up by Paddy Curry. He danced his way through the home defence before firing home from close range.
Meath fought back to go 0-5 to 1-1 in front at the interval but they had the elements in their favour in that opening half and struggled to deal with wind when they faced into it in the second moiety. As they had done in the opening minutes Dublin scored a goal early in the second-half, this time netted by Noah Byrne. That helped them regain pole position where they stayed.
The home side, who had kicked started their campaign with an impressive win over Westmeath last week, didn't score a goal and, perhaps more worryingly for the mangement, never looked like they would get a goal. They just couldn't find a path through the well-organised Dublin defence.
Instead, they had to rely on points to keep them in the hunt with four of their number - Michael McIvor, Pat Crawley, John Harkin and Andrew Gormley - each firing over two points apiece. Cian Commons, Ben Corkery and David Donnelly were others to raise white flags for the home side over the hour.
The well conditioned Meath team worked extremely hard throughout but just like the seniors when they played Dublin in the NFL a couple of weeks ago, they suffered from the concession of a series of turnovers, especially in the second-half when the Sky Blues turned the screw and applied the pressure. Intense pressure.
Both sides were guilty of giving the ball away as they sought to move the ball forward but Meath, it could be argued, gave more possession away then their opponents and paid the price. All too often Meath attacks came to naught.
At times the young Royals got it spot on and put some wonderful, scintillating moves together that led to scores. In the 15th minute, for example, a move that started with goalkeeper Braden Colfer and involved David Donnelly, Oisin O'Neill, Tom Lenehan, Cian Commons, Pat Crawley ended with Ben Corkery surging through the Dublin defence before popping the ball over the bar. It was a splendid score, expertly finished and left the scoreboard reading, 1-0 to 0-2.
Meath hauled themselves on level terms for the first time on 18 minutes when Crawley finished off a move by smartly firing between the posts, to leave it 0-4 to 1-1. Seven minutes later Crawly again swiftly fired over to put his side 0-5 to 1-1 in front which was how it remained at the break.
The odds were against Meath in the second-half simply because they faced into that stiff, icy breeze and sure enough Dublin used their pace, skill and physical presence to impose themselves and go on to win with talented performers such as Joshua Young, Senan Ryan, Byrne, Harry Curley and Lenny Cahill also slicing through the overworked Meath defence to get scores.
The numbers players wore on their backs bore little resemblance to the positions they played in. Eamon Armstrong and Cian Duggan for example, wore seven and five respectively, but effectively played as midfielders. They did well too, especially in the opening half, winning and processing a lot of ball.
John Harkin, Crawley, Commons, McIvor, Billy Smyth were others who had hard-grafting, enterprising displays from Meath.
All too often promising attacking moves from Meath broke down when they came up against Dublin's defensive battlements.
It all meant a familiar tale of woe for Meath against a team in light blue.
SCORERS
Meath - Michael McIvor 0-2; Pat Crawley 0-2; John Harkin 0-2 frees; Andrew Gormley 0-2 one free; David Donnelly 0-1; Cian Commons 0-1; Ben Corkery 0-1.
Dublin - Noah Byrne 1-1; Paddy Curry 1-1; Joshua Young 0-2; Senan Ryan 0-2; Lenny Cahill 0-2 one free; Harry Curley 0-1.
TEAMS
Dublin - Cillian Murray; Sean Keogh, Cillian Emmett, Jack O'Sullivan; Joshua Young, Eoghan Costello, Ryan Mitchell; Senan Ryan, Alex Carolan; Patrick Coleman, Luke O'Boyle, Noah Byrne; Paddy Curry, Harry Curley, Lenny Cahill. Subs - Andrew O'Reilly for Carolan 31 mins, Colin McAweeney for O'Boyle, Callum Johnston for Curry both 49m, Adam Rock for Young 59m, Ben Kennedy for Byrne 60m.
Meath - Brayden Colfer; Cormac Liggan, Tom Lenehan, Oliver Maloney; Oisin O'Neill, Thomas Sheridan, Patrick White; Eamon Armstrong, Cian Commons (0-1); Pat Crawley (0-2), Ben Corkery (0-1), Tom Lenihan; Oisin Yore, John Harkin (0-2 frees), Cian Duggan. Subs - David Donnelly (0-1) for Yore 13 mins, Michael McIvor (0-2) for Duggan 36m, Billy Smyth for Harkin 37m, Naoise Maguire for Maloney 41m, Rory Crawley for Corkery 43m, Andrew Gormley (0-2 one free) for Lenihan 51m.
Referee - Enda Kelly (Westmeath).