Penalty pain for royals in drab omagh showdown
The concession of a second-half penalty proved costly for Meath as they were delivered a knock-out blow by the Red Hand County in the All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers at Omagh today and lost out by 0-11 to 1-10.
The penalty was awarded by Down referee Ciaran Branagan with almost 54 minutes on the clock when Tyrone’s Tiernan McCann was deemed to have been fouled in the square. Peter Harte stepped forward to confidently direct the ball to the net from the penalty.
However, there was a big question mark over the number of steps McCann took as he sought to open up a route towards the Meath goals.
When the penalty was awarded Meath led by 0-6 to 0-5 after going in at the interval with a 0-4 to 0-3 advantage with the crowd of 6,859 left to mull over what was an unmitigated bore fest.
Buoyed up by their goal Tyrone pushed on to close out the game and earn themselves a place in the draw for the next round of the qualifiers on Monday.
Meath had a chance of a goal themselves in the closing stages when Joey Wallace found himself in a good position but he couldn’t take full advantage and directed his shot narrowley wide.
The big news awaiting Meath supporters before the game was the withdrawal of Kevin Reilly from the starting 15. He was replaced by Mickey Newman with Padraic Harnan moving to the half-back line.
Meath were forced to make another change early in the game when Eamon Wallace picked up a knock and he was replaced by Dunboyne’s Donal Lenihan.
The first half was far from a classic as both sides struggled to come to grips with a greasy surface and ball.
Both sides also put a big emphasis on withdrawing players back into defence which did little in terms of creating the conditions for open, entertaining football.
Tyrone enjoyed most of the possession but it still took them until the ninth minute to register the opening point of the game when Sean Cavanagh popped the ball between the posts.
Mickey Newman had a good chance from a free to get Meath on the scoreboard but missed. Royal County didn’t manage to trouble the scoreboard-keeper until the 29th minute when the excellent Donnacha Tobin powered forward to arrow the ball between the posts.
Within the next few minutes Meath added two more points, one from Graham Reilly while Mickey Newman converted a free. After taking so long to engineer a score Meath were suddenly in front, 0-3 to 0-2.
And it got better for the visitors with Newman again firing over from a free. Despite the problems they had in creating chances Meath had good reason to be optimistic as they went in at the break.
In a more open, fast-flowing second-half Graham Reilly fired over two excellent points for Meath while Brian McMahon, Keogan, Kevin Reilly and Menton also split the posts. Keogan's point was his first in the championship while Menton had an effort rebound off the upright.
However Tyrone with the help of Harte's penalty and points from players such as Mark Bradley, Conor McAliskey, McCann, Darren McCurry and Ronan McNabb powered on to victory as Meath were sent tumbling out of the championship for another year.