Crawford: we did it for our suspended captain

GIVING suspended captain Stephen Bray the opportunity to play in the All-Ireland football semi-final against Kerry on August 30 had been a huge motivation for Meath going into yesterday’s game against Mayo in Croke Park.

Admitting that he had been a huge loss after being red-carded the previous week against Limerick, the team’s sole All-Ireland medal-holder Nigel Crawford agreed it had been a powerful motivation for them to stay in the championship.

“Stephen is probably our best player. It was up to the rest of us to try and work as hard as we could and give him every chance to get back in – and thankfully we did that.’’