Meath edged out in dire conditions
Even though this 1-5 to 0-9 loss to Longford will have no bearing on who advances to the semi-final of the O'Byrne Cup Meath misfired and kicked 13 wides as they were edged out of this second round clash at Ashbourne.
Longford and Meath are in separate groups and it means that whoever wins the third round game against Wexford in January will advance to the last four from the Royals three team group.
With the wind howling across the Ashbourne pitch Longford dominated possession and territory as Meath were pushed onto the back foot and pressurised by their lively visitors.
The difficult conditions made scoring and tackling difficult and Meath suffered most, conceding three points from frees and one from a mark in the openig half.
Robbie Smyth opened the scoring in the ninth minute from a successful mark and two minutes later he doubled the lead with a decent free from distance.
A harsh call against Shane Glynn gifted Smyth with his and Longford's third point and when Smyth posted his first from play Longford's lead was 0-4 to 0-0 at the end of the opening quarter.
Colm P Smyth got in on the scoring act to put five points between the teams as Meath squandered chances with Sean Tobin, Ben Brennan and Owen McDonnell all off target.
Brennan eventually opened the hosts account in the 22nd minute when he converted a '45', but Smyth restored Longford's cushion with his third point to make it 0-6 to 0-1, that seemed to poke Meath into life.
Another converted placed ball from Brennan got Meath going and from the resultant kickout Niall Hickey burst clear and centred for Brennan to palm a simple goal to the net and ensure the deficit was just one at the break, 1-2 to 0-6, despite Meath being outplayed for the majority of the half.
The fare didn't improve after the break. It took Meath five minutes to restore parity from an excellent Sean Tobin score and in the 44th minute Graham Reilly converted a free to edge the hosts ahead for the first time, but that lead lasted just three minutes before Smyth restored parity again.
Two more points from Smyth put Longford back in the driving seat as Meath continued to mis-fire missing from their last eight attempts and even though Reilly did close the gap to the minimum again with 15 minutes remaining there was no further scoring as Longford held on to claim a second consecutive victory over Meath.
Meath - Andrew Beakey; Thomas McGovern, Shane Glynn, Shane Gallagher; Eoin Lynch, Gavin McCoy, Robert Garry; Danny Quinn, Owen McDonnell; Sean Tobin (0-1), Liam Ferguson, Niall Hickey; Ben Brennan (1-2 one free, one '45'), Graham Reilly (0-2 one free), Daithí McGowan. Subs - Mark Brennan for Beakey, Sean Reilly for McCoy, Robin Clarke for Gallagher, Cian Devlin for Ferguson all half-time, Bryan Menton for Lynch 67m.
Longford – P Collum; D Quinn, B O'Farrell, S Donohoe; C P Smyth (0-1), M Quinn;, D Mimnagh; D Gallagher, P Hanley; N Rabbitte, R McEntire, B McKeon; I O'Sullivan, A Farrell, R Smyth (0-8 five frees, one mark). Subs – M Hughes for McEngtire, C Lee for O'Sullivan both 47 mins, C Shields for Farrell 59m, J Hagan for Donohoe 67m,
Referee – Alan Coyne (Westmeath).