Meath and Westmeath meet again

Neighbours Meath and Westmeath face each other yet again in the Leinster Football Championship.

The two sides met last year and produced one of the clashes of the year with a replay needed to split the two sides.

Meath went on to thrash the much-fancied Kerry side in the semi-finals before faltering at the last hurdle against Galway.

Despite losing veteran midfielder John McDermott, who has finally hung up his boots, Meath still have a strong side with only minor changes expected to be made by Coach Sean Boylan.

Boylan will hand a first ever championship start to John Cullinane who has the unenviable task of replacing McDermott in midfield while Ollie Murphy passed a fitness test during the week to lead the Royal’s forward line along with Graham Geraghty.

Westmeath will have a difficult task this afternoon after a disappointing league campaign and a poor performance in their first round win against Carlow.

Luke Dempsey’s side have also lost the ‘unknown’ quantity that they held last year with shrewd tactician Boylan sure to have done his homework going into the game.

The match at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise begins at 3:45pm.