Hungry Londoners make light work of disappointing Royals

Johnny Greville's side were way off the pace in their opening Christy Ring Cup encounter.

London 5-18

Meath 0-21

Tom Gannon

Meath hurling has had some dark days over the last 12 months, various outings in last year's Joe McDonagh come to mind, but Saturday's heavy loss to London in Trim may have eclipsed them all. Meath were a million miles off the pace set by London and it was almost too bad to believe.

In the first-half, almost every time Meath advanced the sliotar forward with a long ball, the Exiles' defenders were first to react and more times than not, the Royals failed to even get a shot away. Up the other end, Meath's full-back line struggled massively, and they were duly punished on several occasions by the hungry London forwards.

This game was a huge wake-up call for the Royals. Did they think heading into the contest that winning was a formality? Had the emotional rollercoaster of a league campaign that had so many ups and downs taken its toll? Did the departure of the long-time S&C coach, Ciaran Keogh, have a mental impact on the players?

In any case, the Meath hurlers will have to do a lot of soul-searching ahead of their second-round tie against Tyrone. Their performance on Saturday was nowhere near the standard needed to even be competitive in, let alone win a Christy Ring Cup.

Meath got off to a fairly good start and after five minutes they led 0-3 to 0-1. Lorcan Byrne opened the scoring before Jack Regan secured two points, the second of which was an awesome strike from his own 65'.

Paul Kennedy provided the first of London's goals in the sixth minute. The two sides traded two blows each as James Cooke's point in the 14th minute left the scoreline sitting at 1-3 to 0-5 in favour of the visitors.

Conor McCormack then set up Conor O'Carroll for London's second goal and a few minutes later, Sean Glynn put the men in white and green up by five. Regan responded with a long-range effort and with 15 minutes left in the opening-half, London led 2-4 to 0-6, but the situation that Meath found themselves in was about to get a whole lot worse.

In the next five minutes, London rattled off 2-2 without reply. Kennedy secured his second-goal before Jack Morrissey provided the away side with a fourth green flag.

Meath finished out the half slightly better than their opponents, two frees from Regan and a Byrne point sent the sides in for the interval with London leading by 4-9 to 0-9.

Even though they held a 12-point advantage, London did not take the foot off the pedal, and Enda Egan got their second-half tally underway with a monster free from about five yards ahead of his own 45.

Kris Gorman pulled one back for the Royals but two minutes later the Meath full back line was made to look silly as Morrissey waltzed through and finished to the back of the net for the away side's fifth goal.

That score put the eventual winners up by 15 points and the game from a competitive perspective was done. Meath's next five scores all came from dead-ball scenarios as Regan tried to make some sort of impact on the scoreboard. During this period, London kept plugging away. O'Carroll, Egan and David Devine all contributed to their tally.

Devine started to find some form in front of the posts. He secured London's next four points which included a long-range score from the half-way line. Meath continued to try and plug away at the lead as Devine's efforts were cancelled out by points from Kyle Donnelly, James Toher, Byne and Sean Quigley.

A second point for Trim's James Toher still left Meath trailing by 5-17 to 0-20 with five minutes left. With nothing to lose, Meath went in search of goals but their efforts proved futile.

With a minute of normal time remaining, the Royals did have a fair claim for a penalty but even though Damien Healy was clearly fouled inside the square, the referee only awarded a free. Regan's attempt on goal from the aforementioned free was well dealt with.

James Kelly and Morrissey traded points in injury time as Matthew Farroll's final whistle confirmed a result that had been settled long before full-time.

London - Mark Kilgannon; Niall Fitzgerald, Conor Byrne, Stephen Whelan; Tom Millerick, Enda Egan (0-2 one free), Barry Morrissey; Rory Lodge, Paul Kennedy (2-0); Dylan Dawson (0-1), Conor McCormack, David Devine (0-7 four frees); Jack Morrissey (2-5), Conor O'Carroll (1-1); Sean Glynn (0-2). Subs - Tom Haniffen for Fitzgerald 46m, Owen Sheil for Dawson 53m, Donal Reale for McCormack 59m, Donnacha Leahy for Devine 70m, Niall Eames for Lodge 71m.

Meath - Colm O'Rordan; Jarlath Ennis, Daire Shine, Simon Ennis; Kyle Donnelly (0-1), James Toher (0-2), Sean Coloe; James Cooke (0-1), Kris Gorman (0-1); Damien Healy, Nicky Potterton, Lorcan Byrne (0-3); Sean Corbett, Jack Regan (0-11 six frees, two 65's), Mikey Cole. Subs - Darragh Kelly for Jarlath Ennis half-time, Mickey Burke for Simon Ennis 46m, Sean Quigley (0-1) for Corbett, James Kelly (0-1) for Gorman both 57m, Darren O'Higgins for Potterton 64m.

Referee - Matthew Farrell (Roscommon).