Anderson brace helps Meath see off Wicklow in MHC clash

Raymond O'Connor's young guns came out on top of Wicklow in Trim on Saturday.

Meath 3-10

Wicklow 0-11

Tom Gannon

A brace of goals from Pearce Anderson and one from Eoin Flanagan proved crucial as Meath got their first win of the Minor Hurling Championship Tier 2 against Wicklow in Trim on Saturday.

Meath did well to restrict Wicklow to four points in the first-half and some fantastic defensive work, particularly from the half-back line helped massively in that regard.

Jack McKeown was at the forefront of Meath's strong defence and he was aided on either flank by two good performances from Ruairi McCaffery and Euan Kerr.

The stand-out player for the Royals though was Louis McIvor who showed fantastic creativity during the match and pulled the strings for the Royals when they were on the attack. McIvor also finished with a tally of 0-4 for himself.

Goals from Flanagan and Anderson ensured the Royals held a nice advantage of four points at the interval. A second Anderson goal in the 38th minute put Meath up by eight.

Wicklow made a couple of substitutions towards the end of the third quarter and they had an immediate impact as the 'Garden County' rattled off four points in succession to reduce the gap back to four with 10 minutes left on the clock.

The Royals finished strong though and outscored Wicklow by 0-6 to 0-2 in the closing stages to claim victory.

Meath proved to be more clinical than their opposition in the opening quarter but chances were few and far between for the Royals. Wicklow struggled to split the posts, and their only score in the opening 15 minutes came from a Tom Brennan free.

During this period Meath maintained a 100% success rate in front of the posts and two points courtesy of Ciaran O'Brien and Anderson handed the Royals a 0-2 to 0-1 lead after 20 minutes had elapsed.

A good ball in from Euan Kerr found the palm of Flanagan who did brilliantly to turn his marker before producing a fantastic finish to the back of the Wicklow net.

The men in blue and yellow responded well to conceding the goal and Brennan registered their second point before Royals net-minder, Patrick Casey, was forced to make a great save to stop Conor Boland from raising the green flag.

Meath's second goal originated from a long free into the danger zone from McIvor. After his first attempt was blocked, Pearce Anderson took another swing at the sliotar on the rebound, and on the second attempt, found the back of the net which gave Meath a six-point lead with three minutes remaining in the first-half.

A Sean Craig point and a Brennan score reduced the margin back to four before the break as Meath went in at half-time with a lead of 2-2 to 0-4.

Kilmessan's Conor Horan got Meath's tally underway in the second-half before a well-worked move that involved good link-up play between Callum Buckley and Flanagan led to Horan setting up Anderson for his second goal to put Meath up by eight in the 38th minute.

Brennan pulled one back for Wicklow but a few minutes later, a sideline cut from McIvor found the hurl Buckley and was directed over the bar by the full-forward.

Wicklow introduced some fresh legs to their attack and it had an immediate impact as they rattled off the next four scores, two from Brennan and one a piece for Craig and substitute Daniel Duffy. This reduced the gap between the sides back to four with 12 minutes left on the clock.

Meath needed to seize back momentum and they did so in the form of two well-struck McIvor scores and a long-range, wide-angle effort from Horan.

Wicklow had one final throw of the dice to try and get back into the contest and scores from Duffy and Brennan left five points between the sides with five minutes remaining. However, McIvor and Horan combined for three crucial points as Meath closed out the contest well.

Meath - Patrick Casey; Sean Harrigan, Luke Madden, Ronan Greene; Euan Kerr, Jack McKeown, Ruairi McCaffery; Leon Harris, Ciaran O'Brien (0-1); Conor Horan (0-3), Louis McIvor (0-4 two frees), Sebastian Snow; Eoin Flanagan (1-0), Callum Buckley (0-1), Pearce Anderson (2-1). Subs - Kosei Kirwan for Snow 41m, Luke Brady for Greene 46m, Eoghan McDermott for Harris 56m.

Wicklow - Ross Weld; John Lynch, Sean Traynor, Se Killoran; Sean Byrne, Rian Rooney, Sean Byrne, Sean Craig (0-2), Ciaran Darcy; Aodhan Heaney, Luke Cotter, Tirnan Pierce; Cillian Brady, Conor Boland, Tom Brennan (0-7 five frees, one 65'). Subs - Daniel Duffy (0-2) for Pierce half-time, Jim O'Brien for Heaney 41m, George Connors for Brady 43m.

Referee - Richard Holland (Kilkenny).