Comfortable win for Meath hurlers against London
Meath crusied to an impressive 2-23 to 0-13 Christy Ring Cup first round victory against London at Pairc Tailteann today.
Meath laid the foundations for victory with a dominant first-half performance.
Padraig O'Hanrahan had Meath on the scoreboard inside 25 seconds with a well-taken point and while London levelled through Colin Nelson a minute later that was as good as it got for the Exiles in the opening quarter.
Meath forged into a whirlwind 1-8 to 0-1 in that opening quarter with four points from Jack Regan (two frees), a brace from wing-back James Kelly and one by Alan Douglas.
Eamon Ó Donnacadh flashed the sliotar to the net in the 11th minute after a lapse in the London defence.
Douglas claimed Meath's second goal when he was put trhough by a superb Gavin McGowan pass and the extra points were added by Ó Donnacadh, James Kelly and Damien Healy.
London lost corner back Denis O'Regan to a 27th minute injury and hit nine wides as they laboured for scores with Aaron Sheehan (three frees) and Mark O'Dwyer from play sending over points as they trailed by 0-5 to 2-11 at the interval.
Meath did enough in the second-half to ease to a comfortable win with Jack Regan adding a further eight points to take his overall tally to 12 for the 70 minutes, but they also lost substitute Adam Gannon who was stretchered-off with five minutes remaining.
SCORERS
Meath – Jack Regan 0-12; Alan Douglas 1-1; Eamon Ó Donnacadh 1-4; Padraig O'Hanrahan 0-1; James Kelly 0-3; Stephen Morris 0-1, Damien Healy 0-1.
London – Aaron Sheehan 0-7; Mark O'Dwyer 0-2; Colin Nelson 0-1, Kevin Reid 0-1; David Nolan 0-1; Shane Lawless 0-1.
TEAMS
Meath - Shane McGann; Ger Murphy, Darragh Kelly, Shane Whitty; Shane Brennan, Keith Keoghan, James Kelly; Sean Geraghty, Cathal McCabe; Damien Healy, Padraig O'Hanrahan, Jack Regan; Gavin McGowan, Eamon Ó Donnacadh, Alan Douglas. Subs – Adam Gannon for Douglas 45 mins, Callum O'Sullivan for Gavin McGowan 57m, Stephen Morris for Geraghty 60m, Colm O Mealoid for O'Hanrahan 63m, Jack McGowan for Gannon 65m.
London – Padraig Buckley; Denis O'Regan, Padraig Muldoon, Lee Murphy; Killian Burke, Kevin Reid, Sean Conlon; Oisin Royston, Jessie Kennedy; Colin Nelson, Stephen Lohan, Mark O'Dwyer; Aaron Sheehan, Brendan McGarry, David Nolan. Subs – James Byrne for O'Regan 27 mins, Shane Lawless for O'Dwyer half-time, Cormac Thornton for Nelson 54m, Brian Hickey for Royston and James Byrne for Lohan both 60m.
Referee – Nathan Wall (Cork).