Meath down in the dumps

Meath produced another disappointing performance in Newry tonight as they slumped to a second NFL Div 2 loss following a 0-14 to 1-13 defeat by hosts Down.

Having lost the opening round of the league to Kildare, Meath bounced back with victory over Derry a fortnight ago, but it was a case of one step forward, two steps back for Andy McEntee's side as they conceded another early goal and never got themselves back in the game.

Down went into tonight's game on a 14-game losing streak stretching back 22 months and few gave them much chance of getting back to winning ways against a Meath side that had found their form against Derry.

However, boosted by Joe Murphy's second minute goal Down got their noses in front and never looked back as Meath picked and probed at the over-staffed Down rearguard, but struggled to find a way through.

After that early goal the sides traded points with Down awarded a score in the 20th minute when it was clear to everyone except the match officials that Paddy O'Rourke had steered Barry o'Hagan's goalbound shot around the post.

Meath did close the gap to 0-4 to 1-2 with a James Toher free, but four points in succession following a catelogue of Meath errors put Down firmly in the driving, 1-6 to 0-4.

In the closing minutes of the half Donal keogan and Graham reilly hit points either side of scores from Ryan Johnston and Aidan Carr as Down maintained their five-point cushion at the break, 1-8 to 0-6.

Toher's brilliant score six minutes after the resumption failed to spark Meath into life as points from Conaill McGovern, Darragh O'Hagan (free) and Kevin McKernan extended the hosts lead to 1-11 to 0-8.

Meath needed a goal to reignite their hopes, but it never looked like coming. Donal Lenihan, with two frees, and Bryan McMahon did give them late hope of salvaging something from a dreadful performance, but when Lenihan's late free took a couple of deflections before flying over the bar it signalled the end of Meath's challenge as they slumped to defeat.

Down - M Reid; R McAleenan, G McGovern, D O'Hagan; D O'Hanlon (0-4 three frees), C McGovern (0-1), C Mooney; P Turley, A Carr (0-1); K McKernan (0-1), C Maginn (0-1), J Murphy (1-0); S Millar, B O'Hagan (0-2), R Johnston (0-1). Subs – B McArdle for C McGovern 47 mins, J Johnston (0-1) for B O'Hagan 49m, M Poland for Mooney 65m, P Devlin for R Johnston 68m. Black card – K McKernan (replaced by N Donnelly 74m).

Meath - Paddy O’Rourke; Donal Keogan (0-1), Conor McGill, Ruairí Ó Coileáin; Willie Carry, Brian Power, Shane McEntee; Bryan Menton, James Toher (0-2 one free); Alan Forde, Cillian O’Sullivan, Cian O’Brien; Graham Reilly (0-2), Brian Sheridan, Donal Lenihan (0-8 seven frees). Subs - Bryan McMahon (0-1) for O'Sullivan half-time, Eamon Wallace for O'Brien 47 mins, David Toner for McEntee 61m, Joey Wallace for Forde 58m, Sean Tobin for Sheridan 68m.

Referee - Martin McNally (Monaghan).