Meath clear first hurdle

Meath advanced to the Leinster JFC quarter-final where they will meet Longford with a hard-earned victory over hosts Wexford last Wednesday night. The Royal County were beaten by Dublin in last year"s provincial decider and made the best possible start to this preliminary round clash with an early brace of Rory Maguire goals in the space of 60 seconds. However, that didn"t translate into an easy evening for Meath and the sides were level by the end of the first-quarter (2-1 to 1-4) as Wexford capitalised on generous defending. Meath were guilty of poor defending during the early part of the opening half and they were also hampered by the loss of full-back Thomas O"Connor through injury after only 10 minutes The Dunboyne player was replaced by Cortown"s Paddy Kerrigan with St Michael"s Derek Flood taking over at ful-back. Soon after St Ultan"s Brian Galligan was sent into the right corner back position as Peter Clinton was withdrawn in favour of Summerhill"s Richie Hatton. Full-forward Jamie Queeney opened Meath"s account from play with a well-taken third minute point and then Maguire showed good strength to hold off a defender as he raced in along the end line and blasted to the net from a tight angle. From the resultant kick-out Meath gained possession again and Maguire had a simpler task with his second goal for a 2-1 to 0-0 advantage. That put it up to Wexford and they held Meath scoreless for the next 10 minutes and whittled away at the lead. The hosts got back to parity through the efforts of senior panellist Ben Brosnan who claimed a fine goal while Lloyd Colfer (two), Darren Foran and Paul O"Leary sent over the points. Meath captain and centre-back Mickey Burke got Meath going again when he launched an 80-metre solo raid for a point which was cancelled by a good Foran effort. That was really as tight as it got for Meath and they were in control for the remainder of the half with points from Queeney and Mickey Newman (two each) and TJ Garry for a 2-7 to 1-6 interval advantage. Amazingly, Meath also had two 'goals" disallowed after both Glen Loughran and Newman fisted to the net out of their hands. On each occasion it appeared that they could have fisted over the bar rather than under it? Meath resumed the second-half smartly and extended their lead with quick points from Ciaran Lynch and Newman, but three unanswered Colfer points sustained Wexford although they always looked second best to Kit Henry"s men who will improve from this competitive outing. A significant change in the second-half was the amount of wides. Each side managed one apiece in the opening half, but were more wayward after the break when they managed four apiece. Solid defensive play was a notable characteristic of Meath in the closing stages when both Galligan and Kerrigan displayed some real class under pressure as dengerous Wexford attacks were thwarted. Queeney also caused a lot of problems in attack and claimed four fine points in the final quarter which deflated the hosts. THE TEAMS Meath - Jonathan Ginnity (Castletown); Peter Clinton (St Michael"s), Thomas O"Connor (Dunboyne), Derek Flood (St Michael"s); Alan Reynolds (Walterstown), Mickey Burke (Longwood) 0-1, Brian Galligan (St Ultan"s); Tom Walsh (Walterstown), Glen Loughran (Cortown); Ger McCullough (Ratoath), Ciaran Lynch (St Michael"s) 0-2, TJ Garry (Dunderry) 0-1; Rory Maguire (Longwood) 2-1, James Queeney (Na Fianna) 0-7, four frees, Michael Newman (Kilmainham) 0-3. Subs - Paddy Kerrigan (Cortown) for O"Connor 10 mins; Richie Hatton (Summerhill) for Clinton 15m; John Crimmins (Dunshaughlin) for Walsh 52m; Colm Carry (Drumbaragh) for Garry 58m. Wexford - J Russell; C Murphy, M O"Hanrahan, D Carter; A Doyle, G Molloy, K Kennedy; D Bradley, P O"Leary (0-1); P Hughes, J Hughes, S O"Neill; B Brosnan (1-2), D Foran (0-3), L Colfer (0-5, four frees). Subs - J Shaughnessy for O"Neill, J Watters for O"Hanrahan (both half-time), K O"Grady for Hughes 45 mins REFEREE Eddie Craul (Wicklow).