End of the road for Royal County reign as Leinster VEC champions
by Conall Collier Updated: Wednesday, 18th January, 2012 4:50pm
Kildare 1-14, Meath 0-12
Meath manager Kit Henry outlines tactics at Newbridge on Saturday.
Meath's five-year reign as Leinster VEC Inter-County SFC champions ended at St Conleth's Park, Newbridge on Saturday when hosts Kildare shaded the exchanges in a semi-final that was the real game of two halves.
Meath, and manager Kit Henry, were bidding for an unprecedented sixth provincial title in-a-row, but a dismal first-half performances paved the way to the exit gate as the Royal County trailed by 12 points, 0-3 to 1-12, at the interval.
And yet there was plenty to admire about Meath's gutsy second-half performance that almost produced a great escape as Kildare drew a blank on the scoreboard until the final 10 minutes.
Meath were almost in need of a bail out, such was the deficit they faced for the second-half, but the Royal County boys restored a triple A rating with a spirited and swashbuckling display after the break.
Despite the defeat, the future looks bright at this level and Meath minor manager Andy McEntee will surely reap the rewards of this campaign later this year with the Leinster MFL due to start in March as a lead in to the first round of the championship against Longford in April.
Last Saturday Meath were blitzed in the opening 30 minutes as Kildare reeled of the points from Wayne Fitzpatrick (four), Cathal Jennings (three), Neil Flynn, Emmet O'Keeffe, Conor Davin, Gary Savage and Aaron Bannon-Whelan.
Kildare grabbed a goal midway through the opening half when Jennings finished a rebound off the crossbar to the net.
By contrast, Meath were ponderous in possession and managed three Eamonn Wallace (pictured) points which left them very subdued at the break.
Transformed would be the best way to describe Meath after the resumption, but they missed two gilt-edged goal chances and that ultimately helped Kildare's survival.
A minute into the second-half Meath's hard-working Oisin Reilly rifled a shot off the crossbar, it fell kindly into the path of Ryan Carey, but the Kingscourt teenager, a student at O'Carolan College, Nobber was unable to find the net.
However, that gave Meath a lift and the points flowed from Wallace and Paul Donnellan (two each) which reduced the deficit to eight points (0-7 to 1-12) by the end of the third quarter.
Reilly's endeavours were rewarded with three points (two frees) in as many minutes and by that stage Kildare were looking for the panic button as they started to collect yellow cards.
There was some respite for the hosts when Flynn pointed a free with nine minutes remaining, but at the other end Meath substitute Tony Smith looked certain to find the net following a good move.
Unfortunately, Kildare's top class goalkeeper David Byrne produced a spectacular save - it was a crucial moment.
Wallace added a point and Kildare lost Evan Dempsey to a second yellow card, but a point apiece was all that materialised for the remainder. Reilly closed Meath's account and Davin hit the target for Kildare.
The Kildare boys came through the back door system after losing to Dublin in the opening round and they got back into contention with an impressive victory over a Louth team that Meath recorded a laboured victory against.
Kildare - D Byrne; H Faherty, T O'Connell, E Farrelly; C O'Donoghue, B Nolan, E Dempsey; A Bannon-Whelan (0-1), G Savage (0-1); C Jennings (1-3), C Davin (0-2), R Casey; W Fitzpatrick (0-4 one free, one sideline), E O'Keeffe (0-1), N Flynn (0-2 one free). Subs - L McCabe for O'Keeffe 49 mins, J Kennedy for O'Connell 57m.
Meath - Shay Rooney (O'Carolan College); Gareth Deery (Ashbourne CC), Padraig Gallagher (Dunboyne CC), Niall Lenehan (Ashbourne CC); Conor Carton (Ashbourne CC), Brian Power (Ratoath CC), Stephen O'Brien (O'Carolan College); Shane McEntee (Dunboyne CC), Michael Brogan (St Ciaran's, Kells); Oisin Reilly (St Ciaran's, Kells 0-4, two frees), Eamonn Wallace (Ratoath CC 0-6), Caoimhin Griffin (Athboy CC); Paul Donnellan (Dunshaughlin CC 0-2, one free), Conor O'Brien (Dunshaughlin CC), Ryan Carey (O'Carolan College). Subs - Niall Carolan (Dunboyne CC) for McEntee 28 mins, Tony Smith (St Ciaran's, Kells) for Carey and Ronan McMahon (St Ciaran's, Kells) for Donnellan 45m, Conor Smith for S O'Brien 57m, Aidan Hughes (Ashbourne CC) for Brogan 58m.
Referee - John Hickey (Carlow).
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