Champions Sligo suffer heavy defeat at hands of Meath

Meath 1-23 Sligo 0-10

Reigning Nicky Rackard Cup champions Sligo will have to go through the back door route if they are to carve out back-to-back wins, after Meath claimed an emphatic 16-point win over them at Markievicz Park today.

Despite missing key attacker Niall Hackett, Meath were in excellent form throughout this game and they held Sligo to just three points in the second half.

In a keenly-contested opening half the visitors led by 0-9 to 0-7 at the interval and turned on the style on the restart.

In ideal conditions Meath upped the ante playing with the assistance of a very strong wind.

The versatile Stephen Clynch struck five points, with Clynch playing in a variety of positions in both defence and attack throughout the game.

Peter Dornan top-scored with six points for the Royals, while they also had an excellent contribution from Joe Keena with four points.

The visitors' goal came from substitute Derek Muldoon with seven minutes remaining. He managed to find the net just seconds after his introduction, building up a 1-20 to 0-10 advantage.

Meath closed out the result with points from Clynch (0-2) and Mickey Cole to seal their progress into the next round.