Meath win thriller with Bray brace

Meath 2-14 Galway 1-14

Two Stephen Bray goals helped Meath to victory in an All-Ireland SHC Qualifier thriller at Portlaoise.

Bray struck twice in the space of four minutes to set the Royals up for a place in the quarter-finals, but the Tribesmen made them battle all the way for their three points success, coming from six points behind to draw level with 10 minutes to play.

The scores were level four times in the opening 20 minutes of what was shaping up to be a close-fought encounter.

Meath’s Brian Farrell, Shane O’Rourke and Bray were all on target, with Sean Armstrong, Nicky Joyce and Michael Meehan responding for the Tribesmen.

But the game changed dramatically when Bray twice caught the defence cold to blast in two rapid-fire goals.

And he could have had a four-minute hat-trick, for sandwiched in between those 24th and 28th minute strikes, he offloaded to a colleague when he should have had another crack at goal himself.

Galway did stage a minor recovery for Matthew Clancy and Joyce, with his third to pull back scores, but the Royals finished the half on a high with scores from Mark Ward and skipper Anthony Moyles to go in at the break wit a 2-6 to 0-6 advantage.

Galway clawed their way back to within three points, and after Peter Ford had introduced Padraic Joyce on 40 minutes, Colm Coyle responded by ending Graham Geraghty’s exile.

Michael Meehan rifled home a 50th minute penalty, and landed a monster 55-metre free to level the game at 2-9 to 1-12, but Meath managed to stage another flourish, which yielded scores from Geraghty, Farrell, and substitute Charles McCarthy.

Meath: B Murphy, E Harrington, D Fay N McKeigue, S Kenny, K Reilly, C King, M Ward (0-1), N Crawford, P Curran, A Moyles (0-1), P Byrne, S Bray (2-2), S O’Rourke (0-2), B Farrell (0-6, 5 frees).

Subs: S McGabhann for Harrington, C McGuinness for Kenny, G Geraghty (0-1) for Curran, C O’Connor for McGabhann, C McCarthy (0-1) for Byrne

Galway: P Doherty, K Fitzgerald, F Hanley, D Burke, M Comer, D Blake, G Sice, B Cullinane, N Coleman, M Clancy (0-1), N Joyce (0-5, 1 free), J Fallon, S Armstrong (0-3), M Meehan (1-5, 1 pen, 2 frees, 1 ‘45’), J Bergin.

Subs; P Joyce for Fallon, C Bane for Clancy, P Geraghty for Cullinane, D Savage for Bergin

Referee: M Deegan (Laois).