Meath Hill open with a victory

Despite finishing with 14 men Meath Hill made a winning start to the JFC when they got the 2012 competition underway against Kilbride at Seneschalstown on Thursday night last. With Ollie Murphy on the sideline calling the shots, Meath Hill gave the former Royal County ace plenty of reasons for his blood pressure to increase with a fragmented performance. The winners were reduced to 14 men with 10 minutes remaining when Michael Byrne collected a second yellow card and became the first player to be sent-off in the 2012 championship. "Kilbride gave a good performance, they had some good players especially Finbarr Clarke, Robert Crawford and Stephen McMullen, I was impressed with that trio," the Meath Hill manager told the Meath Chronicle. "It's the usual old story when you go down to 14 men, our overall workrate increased and we opened the game up a bit. "The main thing was to win the opening round of the championship, that was very important and we can try to build on that now," he added. Meath Hill were ahead by 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval with Mark Tully the main hitman with four points (two frees) and one each by Padraig Smith and Paul Gorman. Kilbride stayed in touch through John Bruton, Crawford, McMullen and Geoff Sheridan. Despite falling further behind to points from Tully and Shane McCabe, Kilbride showed some character as they twice whitled the Meath Hill advantage down to the minimum in the second-half, but they also left their manager Eamonn Clarke in frustrated mode as they squandered some very good chances. Points from Dermot White (two frees) and Niall Ferriter cut the deficit to 0-7 to 0-8 within 10 mniutes of the resumption. Kilbride's task was made easier on a couple of occasions when referee Marcus Quinn moved the ball forward for dissent and each time White capitalised. McCabe and White traded points at the end of the third-quarter which left the minimum in it, but the introduction on Ian Malone gave Meath Hill an extra bit of pace. Malone tagged on a point as did midfielder Aodhan Matthews following superb work by Tully who closed his side's account. White's pointed free was all Kilbride could muster for the remainder. Meath junior manager Pat Coyle was present as he began the process of assembling a panel of players for the forthcoming Leinster JFC clash against Wicklow in Navan at the end of May. Meath Hill - C Yorke; D Boyle, N Tully, K Parge; M Byrne, T Boyle, Martin Tully; A Matthews (0-1), J Yorke; Mark Tully (0-6 three frees), P Smith (0-1), B Kieran; P Gorman (0-1), S McCabe (0-2), T Rooney. Sub - I Malone (0-1) for Smith 41 mins. Kilbride - E Farrell; B Reilly, C Rennicks, P Roche; J Bruton (0-1), F Clarke, C Sheridan; R Crawford (0-1), O Nolan; N Ferriter (0-1), S McMUllen (0-1), L Tormey; G Sheridan (0-1), D White (0-4 three frees), P O'Neill. Subs - D Kehoe for O'Neill half-time, P Smith for Ferriter 48 mins. Referee - Marcus Quinn (Clann na nGael)