Ladies survive play-off

How the mighty have fallen. The once great Waterford ladies footballers were sent crashing down to the intermediate grade, while Meath secured their senior status with a comfortable relegation play-off victory at Newtownmountkennedy on Sunday. In atrocious conditions of hail, sleet and snow Meath were completely dominant as they held Waterford scoreless for the opening half and secured their status with ease. The win was a welcome relief for manager Brendan Dardis who has returned to the helm of Meath football after a few years absence and his impact was immediate. Meath were more potent, cohesive and confident and punished almost every Waterford mistake. Grainne Nulty made light of the awful conditions to get Meath off to a great start with a booming point. Waterford struggled to make any inroads and had only one shot at the target in the opening period as Aoife O"Rourke, Jane Burke and Ciara Daly excelled. With such a solid rearguard Meath had the confidence to pile forward and with Elaine Duffy once again in outstanding form they dominated throughout and took a 0-10 to 0-0 interval lead with Mary Sheridan, Ciara Dempsey and Gillian Bennet also on the scoresheet. As the weather conditions deteriorated further Waterford got off to a bright start for the second-half when Aoife McGovern capitalised on a breaking ball to rattle to the net. Spurred on by the concession of the goal Meath upped the tempo again with Duffy, Nulty and Mary Sheridan adding to their tally before Amy Bennett marked her return to inter-county action with a fine point. Meath will now head into the NFL Div 2 in high spirits and with renewed enthusiasm. They will take on Longford on Sunday, 15th February. Meath - I Munnelly; C Coffey, L McKeever, Á Fagan; C Daly, J Burke, A O"Rourke; G Nulty (0-3), A Murray (0-1); E Duffy (0-6), P Sheridan, C Dempsey (0-1); S Bennett, M Sheridan (0-2), G Bennett (0-1). Subs - F O"Neill for S Bennett, A Bennett (0-1) for P Sheridan, S McCormack for Daly, E Wardick for Dempsey.