Sweet revenge for Meath

Meath 5-9 Dublin 0-13

Meath made Dublin pay for nine years of hurt with their most resounding win ever over their old rivals at Croke Park today.

It was the Royals first championship victory over the Blues since the 2001 Leinster final and the first time ever that they had scored five goals against them.

The remarkable aspect of the game was that they forged such a comprehensive success despite being almost completely outplayed around midfield particularly in the second half, as evidenced by the substitution of both Mark Ward and Brian Meade.

But Dublin couldn’t create enough up front and Brendan McManamon’s 65th minute point was their first score from play in 48 minutes of action.

At the other end, Meath had no problem in making chance and their clinical finishing decided the outcome.

The most crucial series of events occurred towards the end of the opening quarter, when Dublin were the width of a coat of paint away from getting a levelling goal courtesy of Paul Flynn.

Two minutes later, Meath had a major at the other end with man of the match, Stephen Bray smashing home his second goal off the upright and Pat Gilroy’s men never recovered.

Dublin began in customary lively fashion and led by two points after seven minutes when Bryan Cullen ventured forward to fist over.

Meath were living off scraps as Eamon Fennell dominated around the centre but in what was to become a trend, they struck for a goal to breathe oxygen to their aspirations.

Bray it was who struck in the 10th minute and it was a fine solo score. The Navan O’Mahony’s attacker collected possession about 40m out on the left and burned Fennell for pace on the outside, before shooting low and hard to the net.

Still the Dubs held sway though, shooting the next three points. Tomás Quinn provided a brace of those, either side of a nice effort from Bernard Brogan, who was causing Kevin Reilly some discomfort.

He couldn’t get enough possession though and later on, Reilly exerted his control to completely nullify the gifted marksman’s threat.

Meath hit back with three of their own, Cian Ward hitting two of them and at the break the sides were level, 0-8 to 1-5.

His confidence clearly boosted, Ward struck for a cracking goal five minutes after the restart, swerving a shot into the top corner beyond Stephen Cluxton’s full length dive after good work by Joe Sheridan, Meade and Bray.

Flynn was very unlucky to see his rasper strike the inside of Meath upright and flash across the goals before spinning out wide in the 46th minute.

In a twinkle, Bray was driving in a goal at the other end. Graham Reilly was the creator on this occasion, following a strong run with an exquisite kick pass to his colleague, although there was a suspicion that he may have fouled the ball along the way.

Five minutes later Sheridan was lashing home after Ross McConnell failed to deal with Seamus Kenny’s long ball and Cullen, attracted to the play, left his man unmarked. The Seneschalstown strongman collected possession 35m out and brought the ball forward before slamming convincingly to the net.

It was plain sailing at this stage, with nothing going right for Dublin, two shots for points hitting the upright.

Three minutes from time, they were undone by another high ball. This time substitute, Brian Farrell was the beneficiary, calmly sliding to the corner of the Dublin net, once again, via the upright to put the seal on a famous win.

Meath: B Murphy; C O’Connor, K Reilly, E Harrington; A Moyles, G O’Brien, C King; B Meade, M Ward; S Kenny, J Sheridan 1-0, G Reilly 0-1; C Ward 1-4(0-3fs), S O’Rourke 0-3, S Bray 2-1. Subs: N Crawford for M Ward (47); C Gillespie for Meade (56); C McGuinness for G Reilly (62); J Queeney for King (64); B Farrell 1-0 for Moyles (65)

Dublin: S Cluxton; M Fitzimons, R O’Carroll, P McMahon; B Cahill, B Cullen 0-1, G Brennan; E Fennell, R McConnell; P Flynn, A Brogan, N Corkery; C Keaney 0-1(f), B Brogan 0-3(2fs), T Quinn 0-7(5fs, 1 45). Subs: E O’Gara for Keaney (44); K Bonner for McConnell (49); K Nolan for McMahon (55); K McManamon 0-1 for Quinn (59); D Henry for Corkery (61)

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).