Oconnor point secures dramatic victory for tenacious royals

In what was a drama-filled ending to a topsy-turvy encounter Ballinabrackey's Chris O'Connor popped over a late point to secure a dramatic 2-11 to 0-16 victory for Meath in the Leinster JFC semi-final at Drogheda this evening.

O'Connor, who was a regular on the Meath senior team for a number of years, fired over to give Sean Barry's side a win that looked beyond them for much of this highly entertaining encounter.

Trailing 0-9 to 1-5 at the interval Meath were second-fiddle for most of the second-half and with seven minutes to play they trailed 1-8 to 0-16.

They hauled themselves back into contention with 54 minutes on the clock when Ciaran Lynch passed to Bobby O'Brien who fired to the net from close range.

Further points from Lynch and Stephen Crosby brought the sides level before O'Connor fired between the posts for the decisive score. 

Kevin Ross netted Meath's first-half goal but the Royal County side struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking over on a regular basis. 

James Califf and Ronan Holcroft capped excellent displays for Louth with 12 points between them and that kind of scoring rate looked to be enough to carry the Wee County to victory.

However, Meath showed loads of spirit and determination to comeback and win and set up a final encounter with Wexford.