Meath sneak past Kildare

Allianz FL Division 2 Round 2: Meath 0-13 Kilare 0-11: It was payback time for Meath footballers following a dismal performance in their opening round defeat to Galway and they delivered in front of their supporters at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday night.

Six days earlier Mick O’Dowd apologised to fans after an abject display in Salthill but following this crucial win against the Lilywhites the Meath boss had plenty to be optimistic about.

“It was always going to a 50/50 game but I was certainly confident that a response would come tonight,” O’Dowd said, after watching his side dig deep in the closing stages to kick-start their promotion charge.

“We didn’t hit any kind of standard in Galway last Sunday and it was a quiet bus journey back to Meath.

“I’ll give all the credit to the players, they stood up and took responsibility for it, they worked incredibly hard all week and I knew they would deliver that kind of performance.”

O’Dowd saw his side hit back from a four-point deficit early in the second half to produce a rousing finish and inflict a second successive league defeat on Jason Ryan’s team.

He continued: “Kildare had 14 men behind the ball at times and I knew that is how they would play. So I was disappointed in the first half and a couple of times in the second half that we kicked possession away. When you are playing against a 14 man defence, you have to retain possession. In fairness there was a lot of strong running as well and that is what broke it down.”

Wing forward Andrew Tormey emerged as man-of-the-match, ending with four points, including a couple of crucial second-half scores. The Ashbourne man took over free-taking duties late on, and hit the levelling point, to leave it 0-10 each on 62 minutes. He then set up Mickey Newman for the lead score a minute later and responded with the best score of the game after Eoghan O’Flaherty had struck for an equaliser.

The move started with keeper O’Rourke who found Sean Tobin, who in turn off loaded to Stephen Bray and he played the ball into the path of Tormey, who shot between the posts without breaking stride.

Kildare had ample time to force a share of the spoils but Meath tightened their grip on proceedings and midfielder Adam Flanagan hit over the insurance score on the stroke of full-time.

For long spells in the opening half the visitors controlled the game, getting numbers behind the ball and hitting Meath on the counter attack. Their dominance should have yielded more than a three-point interval lead, 0-7 to 0-4. Their movement was much slicker and they showed good ball retention with Padraig O’Neill and Gary White controlling the midfield exchanges and Darroch Mulhall and Fionn Dowling impressive in attack.

The hosts suffered an early blow when Graham Reilly was black carded for a foul on Eoin Doyle. Both Mickey Newman and keeper Paddy O’Rourke were erratic from placed balls leaving the Meath men struggling for scores throughout the opening half. Slowly but surely the home side fought their way back. Once they drew level, they looked likely winners.

Scorers for Meath: A Tormey (0-4, 1f), M Newman (0-3, 2fs), S Tobin (0-2f), P O’Rourke (1f), B Menton, A Flanagan, S Bray (0-1 each).

Scorers for Kildare: D Mulhall (0-4, 3fs), F Dowling, P O’Neill (0-2 each), M O’Grady, E O’Flaherty (1f), K Cribbin (0-1 each).

MEATH: P O’Rourke; C McGill, D Tobin, D Keogan; M Burke, D Dalton, B Menton, H Rooney, A Flanagan; G Reilly, P Harnan, A Tormey; J Wallace, S Bray, M Newman.

Subs: S Tobin for Reilly (BC, 8), D Bray for Wallace (35), B Power for Harnan (55), E Wallace for D Bray (69).

KILDARE: M Donnellan; C Fitzpatrick, P Kelly, M O’Grady; O Lyons, D O’Brien, E Doyle, G White, P O’Neill; E Callaghan, K Cribbin, E O’Flaherty; D Mulhall, F Dowling, P Fogarty.

Subs: N Kelly for Dowling (52), T O’Connor for Fogarty (62), F Conway for Fitzpatrick (66).

Referee: C Branagan (Down).