Meath minors survive tricky Longford test

Joe Cowely's Meath minors got the better of Longford in Clonguish on Thursday to book their Quarter Final spot.

Meath 1-1-17 (22)

Longford 3-3-4 (19)

Tom Gannon

Joe Cowley's Meath were made to battle hard for their win over Longford in the final Group 2 game of the Leinster MFC on Thursday evening in Clonguish. The Royals dominated proceedings for most of the contest but two-pointers and goals kept the home side's hopes alive.

The win confirmed Meath's spot in the quarter-final where they will face either Offaly or Wicklow in two weeks.

Meath split open Longford on numerous occasions in the early exchanges and after the first quarter, the young royals had built up a 0-8 to 0-2 lead. However, a goal and a two-pointer for Longford left only one point between the sides at the break.

Longford got their second goal within seconds of the restart before Meath responded well and hit 1-8 without reply to lead 1-17 to 2-5 with nine minutes left. Longford's Brendan Martin then scored 1-5 in succession which reduced the gap back to one point.

The impact from Meath's bench was massive and two substitutes, Lewis Ryan and Sean Delaney, kicked the final two scores which was enough to see Meath claim a hard-fought but deserving victory.

After a patient build-up, Robert Johnson kicked off proceedings in the opening minute before Niall Lawless doubled Meath's early advantage. Longford responded with two points before Meath seized total momentum and hit 0-6 without reply.

A good ball in from Cillian Murphy found Stephen Cahill who tapped over at the start of the fruitful period for the Royals. Declan Byrne and Johnson followed that score up with points before Nathan Reilly hit 0-3 in succession to hand Meath a 0-8 to 0-2 lead after 15 minutes.

Brendan Martin pulled one back for the home side before a scramble in the danger zone led to Cormac Mulligan finding the back of the Meath net. Cormac Murray responded for the Royals before Martin closed out the half with a well-struck two-pointer. At the interval, Meath led narrowly by 0-9 to 1-5.

Within 30 seconds of the restart, Longford drove forward and Meath net-minder, Kian Campbell, did well to deny Mulligan a second goal, but James Flynn was on hand to pick up the pieces. Flynn's goal gave Longford the lead for the first time.

Nathan Reilly single-handedly dragged Meath back in front by hitting 0-4 on the spin. With 15 minutes left, Meath now led 0-13 to 2-5. Following Reilly's good spell, Meath started to get the upper hand again. Substitute Sean Delaney kicked a lovely two-pointer.

Some good link-up play between Reilly and Tadgh Foley led to Adam McEvoy finding space inside before he finished well to the back of the Longford net.

Points from Reilly and Cahill put Meath up by 1-17 to 2-5 with only nine minutes left. Brendan Martin, who had caused Meath a lot of issues, then hit 1-5 without reply, including two two-point frees and an opportunistic goal. Martin's exploits brought Longford back to within one at the end of normal time.

Meath's bench had already contributed 1-3 in the clash and two further points from subs Delaney and Lewis Ryan got Meath over the line and sealed their spot in the quarter-final.

Meath - Kian Campbell; Charlie O'Connor, Conall O'Sullivan, Glen Callaghan; Tadgh Foley, Eoghan McBrearty, Niall Lawless (0-1); Declan Byrne (0-1), Charlie Gallagher; Will Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Robert Johnson (0-2); Cormac Murphy (0-1), Stephen Cahill (0-2), Nathan Reilly (0-8 two frees). Subs - Adam McEvoy (1-0) for Murray 40m, Sean Delaney (0-3 one two-point) for Will Byrne 44m, Jeff Foley for Johnson 49m, Lewis Ryan for Tadgh Foley 54m, Luke Casey for Lawless 57m.

Longford - Ray McNally; Jack O'Farrell, Cathal Lynch, Jack Conlon; Robert Rowen, Billy Maguire, Aidan Mollahan; Max Gallagher, Dylan Ledwith (0-1); Diarmuid Breslin, Cormac Mulligan (1-0), Liam Greene (0-1), Troy Tiernan, James Flynn (1-0), Brendan Martin (1-8, 0-4 two-point frees, one two-point). Subs - Diarmuid O'Brien for Tiernan 24m, Daniel Corr for Aidan Mollahan 43m, Aidan Kelly for Ledwith 46m, Oisin McHugh for Flynn 54m.

Referee - Seamus Farrelly (Dublin)