Low key Ring Cup victory

Playing poorly, but still winning can be the sign of a good team. However, Meath will need to improve significantly on the form they displayed when narrowly overcoming a limited Mayo side in a disappointing Christy Ring Cup encounter at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday afternoon. Hopes and aspirations were high following the Kehoe Cup victory over Carlow, but bad weather, terrible refereeing and even worse shooting conspired to dim those dreams as Meath were well below their best and at times looked capable of losing to one of the minnows of Connacht hurling. When Mayo closed a three-point interval deficit to the minimum in the early stages of the second-half, a shock looked on the cards. However, a four-minute purple patch steadied Meath, yielded five points to establish a six-point lead, and gave them a significant cushion to dampen Mayo"s enthusiasm. It is difficult to put a finger on why Meath were so poor. Very little went right for them. They looked lethargic in the full-back line, tentative around midfield and lacking ideas up front. It was a real out of sorts display, but a win was garnered and two points gained in the bid to secure a place in the knock-out stages. The main worrying statistic for manager John Andrews had to be the 18 wides that his players clocked up. Many of the wayward efforts were from very scorable positions, while others were as a result of over-playing the ball and complicating what should have been simple scoring chances. Meath failed to fire on any cylinders. Mike Cole had an unusually quiet afternoon and with Ger O"Neill and Nicky Horan also struggling it left the Meath attack very blunt. Only Stephen Clynch and Neil Hackett looked lively. Both men picked off some excellent scores while Mickey Burke also did a lot of the hard slog. Most of the play bypassed midfield. Tony Fox did find himself in possession quite often, but the movement in attack wasn"t there. David Crimmins worked hard as always, but wasn"t as influential as usual. Mayo are not a good side because if they were half decent they would have beaten Meath. They relied heavily on the accuracy of ace free expert Adrian Freeman and that was another problem for Meath. The hosts conceded too many frees within Freeman"s range. Some of Cavan referee Brendan Sweeney"s decisions were baffling and allowed Mayo stay in the game, but Meath must look to their own deficiencies as the reason for not earning a more comfortable success. On a positive note, the defence did restrict the visitors to just two points from play. The full-back line covered their space well and hurled intelligently. Kevin Dowd had a solid outing on Mayo"s dual star Keith Higgins, but it was fellow wing-back Padraig Geoghegan who was Meath"s most industrious defender before running out of steam near the end. Geoghegan was involved in most of Meath"s good play, especially when breaking from defence. His contribution sustained Meath and helped ensure that they never trailed from the moment O"Neill pointed them ahead after four minutes. It felt as if that opening point would never come. The sides contributed five wides between them before O"Neill opened the scoring, but Meath were the better side and had Cole netted a great goal chance after five minutes instead of shooting weakly at Micheal Walsh then the margin of victory might have been significantly larger. Burke doubled Meath"s early lead before the first of Freeman"s eight pointed frees settled Mayo. A Hackett free from 65 metres after Walsh pucked-out from outside his small square restored Meath"s two-point cushion and by the 15th minute further points from placed balls from Hackett stretched Meath"s advantage to 0-5 to 0-1. A rout looked on the cards, but Sweeney"s refereeing ensured Freeman had plenty of opportunities. The Mayo man closed the gap to 0-4 to 0-5 early in the second-quarter, but Meath pulled away again with excellent points from Clynch and Hackett. Two Freeman frees sandwiched a Hackett '65" before Clynch had what looked like a perfectly decent 'point" waved wide. Hackett closed the first-half scoring with a pointed free and that gave Meath a 0-9 to 0-6 interval lead. A pair of Freeman points in the opening two minutes of the second-half offered Mayo hope. However, Meath"s brightest spell, which coincided with Horan and Cole moving to the half-forward line, brought points from play for Clynch (two), Hackett, Crimmins and Fox for a 0-14 to 0-8 lead. The win was in the bag, but Mayo refused to give up. They out-scored Meath by 0-4 to 0-2 in a scrappy final quarter. Hackett and Burke grabbed Meath"s final points while Freeman was joined on the Mayo scoresheet by Higgins (two) and Derek McConn. It was a disjointed conclusion to a terrible game. The only way is up for Meath, but they will need a major improvement ahead of the Kerry test in Tralee on Saturday, 12th July. SCORERS Meath - N Hackett 0-8, four frees, one '65"; S Clynch 0-3; M Burke 0-2; G O"Neill 0-1, D Crimmins 0-1, T Fox 0-1. Mayo - A Freeman 0-9, eight frees; K Higgins 0-2, two frees; D McConn 0-1. the TEAMS Meath - S Quinn; M Foley, E Fitzgerald, M Horan; K Dowd, A Ryan, P Geoghegan; T Fox, D Crimmins; N Hackett, M Burke, S Clynch; G O"Neill, N Horan, M Cole. Subs - D Donnelly for Geoghegan 62 mins, K Fagan for O"Neill 67m. Mayo - M Walsh; D Walsh, A Connolly, S Coyne; D McDonnell, S Barrett, C Ryan; P Higgins, D McConn; E Madigan, C Hynes, S Broderick; N Murphy, K Higgins, A Freeman. Subs - K Healy for Madigan 42 mins, S Ganley for Murphy 67m. REFEREE Brendan Sweeney (Cavan).