The battle of the afflicted ended in a comfortable victory for Meath - the Royal infirmary if you like. That familiar, predatory cunning saw them through at critical moments of yesterday's Bank of Ireland Leinster football semi-final at Croke Park. Throw in some occasional sparkling from their brightest stars and it was more than enough to defeat a subdued Kildare.
This smoothly taken victory was another triumph for Sean Boylan's careful husbandry and ability to make do. But if Meath's manager regards the miracle of the loaves and fishes as being a bit heavy on raw materials, his Kildare counterpart Mick O'Dwyer was coping with an empty sardine can and a handful of stale crumbs.
Last year Kildare had the best defence in the championship. Yesterday they were missing four players from that unit, including the entire half-back line, and corner back Ken Doyle got sent off with a quarter of the match left. The struggling attack lost its most consistent contributor when Karl O'Dwyer went off with concussion after half an hour so the defending champions were on a hiding to nothing.
They had chances. O'Dwyer was overcautious taking a ninth-minute point with a goal inviting. Ronan Sweeney was clear through in the 50th minute but lost control of the ball. Otherwise Kildare's forwards made an unequal struggle of the match.
Meath had 12 of the side that started the All-Ireland win two years ago and although centrefield and the half backs were experimental, the team as a unit knuckled down. Nigel Nestor and more particularly Nigel Crawford won good ball in the middle and the defence was in command although Mark O'Reilly had a hard time in the first half from Eddie McCormack.
Meath were impressive when their forwards got moving and in Ollie Murphy and Graham Geraghty they possess two of the most menacing full forwards around. Whereas Kildare's problems were predictable - uninspired up front and defensively creaking - Meath's were frustrating and less terminal. As soon as a spell of decent service to the forwards was restored, they were in business.
Having started devastatingly to build up an early four-point lead, Meath appeared to relax and the urgency went out of the match. Their grip at centrefield loosened and although there were plenty of pickings on the break, the quality of distribution and positioning became dire. Kildare would have been happy at half-time to trail by only a point, 0-8 to 0-9, but there was an underlying feeling that if Meath hit the tracks for a while, they could put away the match. Nonetheless Kildare started the second half well and three Padraig Brennan points gave them the lead by the 45th minute.
Brennan was making more of an impact than Cormac Murphy had allowed him in the first half. Niall Buckley was building on a decent first-half display at centrefield and Meath were under pressure. That was as good as it got for Kildare who managed only one score thereafter.
Trouble started in the 47th minute when Paddy Reynolds petulantly got involved with Ken Doyle after a Meath attack had broken down. In the exchanges, Reynolds plainly struck his man and got a red card from referee Brendan Gorman. But Doyle had done enough to earn a yellow and - having been booked already a few minutes previously - had to follow his antagonist to the line.
With the match still poised, Meath's big guns boomed. Firstly Geraghty began to receive a bit of ball and two quick-fire points gave his side the lead. At times he and Murphy had got in each other's way but now with cracks appearing in Kildare's defence, they went to work. Trevor Giles hadn't been at his best. Although he worked hard, his accuracy wasn't tip-top and at times he appeared to be struggling to stay the pace. But his brain doesn't require stamina work and conjured up a lightning incision in the 56th minute. A quick free - reminiscent of Geraghty's to Tommy Dowd in the 1996 All-Ireland replay - impeccably picked out Richie Kealy in space.
Kealy's run was ended in an unfussy penalty conceded by goalkeeper Christy Byrne who was booked. Giles missed a penalty against Kildare four years ago but not this time. Accurate, hard and low, the ball was in the net before anyone saw it.
So within five minutes Meath were in the driving seat and Kildare disappearing into the rear-view mirror. Shortly afterwards, we had the curious spectacle of Donal Curtis leaving the field to be replaced by Ray Magee, getting ordered back on by the linesman as the proper formalities hadn't been observed, scoring a point and then being properly substituted.
Substitute Killian Brennan fisted a goal to revive Kildare's hopes in the 66th minute but they never exploited the opportunity. Instead Meath raised their game. Giles added a free and in the last minute Evan Kelly scored a fine point on a breakout engineered by Crawford's brave block-down in defence.
