Ratoath rebound from first round defeat with solid win over Trim

Lar Norton's Ratoath never looked like losing the second round contest

“Why are you afraid, O you of little faith” Matthew 8:26. GAA fanatics around the county who believed that Ratoath were dead and buried after their shock first-round loss should now be afraid. The three-time champions bounced back with a 0-16 to 0-11 win over Trim on Saturday evening in Summerhill, writes Tom Gannon.

The score-line slightly flatters Paul Clarke’s Trim side and after Ratoath secured the first six points, Trim failed to ever get within four points of last year’s finalists. Ratoath crucially built up their lead early on and while they weren’t faultless, they did on the whole manage the game well and always kept Trim at arms-length.

At times, Trim were very wasteful in front of the posts and a significant wide tally was permeated by pure woeful attempts at finding the posts. Many of Trim’s opportunities were gifted to them by Ratoath men being caught out in possession or running into trouble. This is something that Lar Norton will have to address if Ratoath are going to regain the Meath SFC.

Ratoath were boosted by the return of Eamon Wallace and Jack Fynn. Wallace in particular was hugely influential in the contest as Ratoath showed massive improvement in the space of two weeks. They have risen from the dead and are still very much alive in the hunt for the Keegan Cup.

Bryan McMahon opened the scoring for Ratoath before Glenn O’Reilly expertly intercepted a wayward Trim pass and split the posts to give Ratoath an early two-point lead. While Trim struggled to calibrate their aim, Ratoath’s attack flourished and two Cian Rogers’ points came either side of an Eamon Wallace score.

McMahon put Ratoath six up before Sean Fitzgerald finally got Trim up and running in the 19th minute. Further points from O’Reilly and Wallace extended Ratoath’s lead before the former traded frees with Aaron Lynch.

Jack Flynn found himself caught out in possession and this led to Trim breaking at pace before substitute James Murray finished the move to reduce the gap back to six.

Trim almost brought themselves right back into contention when some good link-up play between Sean Fitzgerald and Conor Quigley eventually led to Tadgh Carty finding the back of the Ratoath net. However, having consulted with his umpires, the referee disallowed the goal for a square ball offence.

Undeterred, Lynch sent over his second free and third point before Ratoath responded with the last two points of the opening 30 minutes courtesy of Glenn O’Reilly and Conor Rooney. At half-time, Ratoath held a commanding 0-11 to 0-4 lead.

Just as he did in the first half, McMahon opened the scoring in the second-half before Lynch secured three points on the bounce in as many minutes. O’Reilly then settled the ship before Trim reduced the gap back to four with two frees courtesy of half-time sub-David Lernihan. The third quarter had proven to be a fruitful one for Trim and they had outscored Ratoath 0-5 to a point.

Two points from McMahon kept Ratoath ticking over though and they entered the final five minutes with a six-point lead over their rivals. Ratoath were reduced to 14 men for the closing stages when the influential Eamon Wallace was given his marching orders for a second yellow offence.

Ratoath needed Ciaran O Fearaigh to pull off a fantastic block to keep a green flag from being potentially raised. Outside of that, all Trim could muster up was two more points from Lernihan and a Ben McGowan point concluded proceedings.

Ratoath – Cian O’Farrell; Eoin Drysdale, Ben Weir, Sean Brazil; Brian Daly, Liam Kelly, Eamon Wallace (0-2); Darragh Kelly, Jack Flynn; Padraig Byrne, Glen O’Reilly (0-5, three frees), Cian O’Brien; Conor Rooney (0-1), Bryan McMahon (0-5 two frees), Cian Rogers (0-2). Subs - Ben McGowan (0-1) for Darragh Kelly 42m, Ciaran O’Fearaigh for O’Reilly 55m, Joseph Wallace for Rooney 56m, Conor McGill for Drysdale, Daithi McGowan for McMahon both 58m

Trim – Paul Munnelly; David Murtagh, Jack McGowan, Brian Bolger; Eoghan Ryan, Declan Dowling, Eoin Sweeny; Rob Bourke, Sean Fitzgerald (0-1); Conor Quigley, Tadgh Carty, Ciaran Caulfield; Ian Byrne, Daire Lynch, Aaron Lynch (0-5, three frees). Subs – Ben Holden for Byrne, James Murray (0-1) for Bolger both 24m, David Lernihan (0-4, three frees, one 45) for Carty HT, Kyle Ennis for Dowling 55m, Harry Purcell for Holden 57m.

Referee - Joseph Curran (St Michael's)