Leinster SFC/ Meath 2-11 Kildare 1-8:Just like old times for a while at Croke Park yesterday. As a young Meath team dealt comfortably with Kildare, the Hogan Stand shook with the low passionate cheering which accompanied the great Royal triumphs of the last two decades.
Meath left Croke Park comfortable winners and looking forward with fresh optimism to taking on Dublin on June 3rd.
For Kildare it was a deeply disappointing afternoon. The county's paucity of viable forwards was made critical by the performance of a stern Meath defence and in the end Kildare's two wing backs scored as much as the entire forward line. Forced through injury to pick a new midfield, Kildare struggled for possession throughout and Meath's extra cutting edge up front made all the difference.
Meath led from the third minute and were never overhauled in a confident performance which will have done much for the morale of Colm Coyle's developing side.
That Meath enjoyed a comfort zone of two points when they went in for the tea was a reflection of their broader attacking options. Their full-forward line of Stephen Bray, Brian Farrell and Joe Sheridan have plenty of tricks and pace. Sheridan and Bray can swap corners at will and there were times when they cut through the Kildare defence with blithe ease.
They face a sterner test in a fortnight's time but Meath's youth and native resilience will stand them well. They are big and strong in midfield and hungry around the pitch, as you'd expect a Coyle team to be. Plus they have forwards who can score as well as pass.
Alas for Kildare they couldn't make the same boast and the huge scoring input required of John Doyle was slow in coming through and with Tadhg Fennin having a slow afternoon Kildare were always struggling.
At the throw-in Doyle was in the shadow of Darren Fay the Meath full back but soon moved to centre forward in a straight swap. By half-time Fay had outscored him. It was said in Meath during the week that if Doyle could be limited to six points or less everything would be all right. So it proved.
That was a freakish statistic but the pressure on Doyle playing in front of a makeshift midfield and being by far his side's most productive forward was immense.
Anthony Moyles did decent work throughout policing Doyle and it was only in the dying minutes of the first half that he broke free. He scored a routine point on 32 minutes but a bad miss three minutes later was more indicative of the time he was having.
Meanwhile, Fay was the swashbuckler of old. Dragged from his post in the 27th minute he had the wisdom to keep going. Kevin Reilly fed a ball from under a thicket of Kildare players; Fay swapped passes with the alert Bray and finished with some aplomb. Not bad for a full back. The goal put Meath a goal ahead.
Two minutes later, Fay was on his own goal-line to make a desperately important save from Ken Donnelly who was through on goal.
Those two moments were pivotal. Had Donnelly scored Kildare would have been ahead for the first time in the game (Emmet Bolton had mustered a point after Fay's goal.) As it was, the scores stayed that way till half-time, with Meath looking the happier side as they vanished from the pitch.
And why not? Midfield was going their way. Their half forwards and half backs were doing well. They had scoring options.
Kildare replaced two thirds of their half-forward line at the break but it was Meath's interval sub, Peter Curran, who made the most instant impact, scoring within seconds of the restart. Doyle had another wide (although he was growing in influence) and then Meath scored a fine point the excellent Peadar Byrne was involved again in feeding Kevin Reilly whose long pass found Sheridan, who fisted over for a point.
It never really got any better for Kildare after that. Doyle enjoyed a sweet patch, getting two good scores but Byrne matched them with two of his own, the second of which incited a run of three more Meath points which left them seven points clear with 19 minutes left. Kildare never looked like getting up off the canvas.
That lead offered ample cushioning to allow Meath to absorb the blow of losing full forward Farrell to a straight red card three minutes later. Despite another Doyle point for Kildare a Meath penalty (after a foot tackle on Byrne) was converted by Sheridan with 10 minutes left effectively finished the game. A good portion of the 35,040 present began heading for the exits.
Meath looked increasingly promising in the latter stages of their league run and there was quiet confidence all week that this team were bubbling up nicely. And even accounting for the surprisingly poor quality of Kildare's performance this was a good win. It's in the DNA of Meath teams to raise their game when confronted by sky blue jerseys. Summer in Leinster looks a good deal more interesting already.
MEATH: 1 B Murphy; 2 E Harrington, 3 D Fay (1-0), 4 N McKeigue; 5 S Kenny, 6 A Moyles (capt) 7 C King; 8 M Ward, 9 N Crawford; 12 P Byrne (0-2), 11 K Reilly (0-1), 10 N McLoughlin; 15 J Sheridan 1-3, 1-0 pen), 14 B Farrell (0-1), 13 S Bray (0-3). Subs: P Curran (0-1)for McLoughlin (half-time); C Ward for Byrne (70 mins).
KILDARE: 1 E Murphy; 2 E Callaghan, 3 D Lyons, 4 A MacLochlainn; 5 A Rainbow (0-1), 6 M Hogarty, 7 E Bolton (1-1); 8 K O'Neill (0-1), 9 R Glavin; 10 J Kavanagh, 11 P O'Neill, 12 K Donnelly; 13 T Fennin (0-1), 14 J Doyle (0-4, one free), 15 M Conway. Subs: J Phillips for K Donnelly, R Sweeney for Kavanagh (both half-time); M Foley for Hogarty, D McCormack for Fennin (both 56 mins); M Scanlan for Bolton (64 mins).
Referee: A Mangan(Kerry).
