Late flourish secures points for Meath

Trailing by four points with 15 minutes remaining Meath looked destined to extend their winless league streak into a second year before the produced a rousing closing quarter to claim the NFL Div 2 North spoils with a 0-16 to 0-15 victory over Westmeath at Pairc Tailteann today.

When Westmeath went down to 14 players after Sam Duncan picked up a black card in 50th minute they kicked the next two points and looked in a strong position to win, but in the closing minutes Meath outscored their visitors by 0-7 to 0-2 as the impact off the bench got them over the winning line.

Westmeath opened the scoring in the first minute when Luke Loughlin converted a '45', but Meath's response was swift as Thomas O'Reilly converted a 13-metre free after Jordan Morris looked to have been fouled well inside the square. Cillian O'Sullivan added a superb score 90 seconds later.

Ronan O'Toole restored parity with a massive point from distance before Loughlin edged his side in front with another successful '45' and when John Heslin kicked a superb score Westmeath were well in command leading 0-4 to 0-2 after just eight minutes.

Matt Costello and Ger Egan traded points to maintain the two-point gap, but before the first water break O'Sullivan converted a mark from 40 metres and Eoin Harkin added a point to make it 0-5 each.

When play resumed Heslin scored a free to restore Westmeath's lead, but a Morris free and a Darragh Campion point edged Meath into a 0-7 to 0-6 lead six minutes before the break.

However Meath couldn't hold onto that advantage as Heslin converted two frees when he punished Shane McEntee for an off the ball foul on Egan and clipped over another from 13-metres after he was harshly deemed to have been fouled by Conor McGill to make it 0-8 to 0-7 at the interval.

Westmeath extended that lead to three points within five minutes of the restart as Egan powered over from 45 metres and Heslin converted another 'soft' free.

Bryan McMahon marked his introduction with a converted free to keep Meath in touch and when Bryan Menton added his name to the scoresheet it closed the deficit to one, 0-9 to 0-10.

Another outstanding score from Heslin restored Westmeath's two-point cushion and even after the lost Duncan who was black carded for blocking O'Sullivan's run, they still managed to pull clear with scores from Ray Connellan and Loughlin making it 0-13 to 0-9 in the 56th minute.

Staring down the barrel of defeat Meath upped the tempo against the 14 men and before Duncan returned they kicked points from Fionn Reilly, Morris (free) and James Conlon to close the gap again to the minimum, 0-12 to 0-13.

Heslin looked to have settled Westmeath with another free, but Morris responded from a free in the 64th minute to leave just one between the sides again.

Then Meath hit a purple patch. Andy Colgan converted a 40-metre free to level it up 0-14 each and seconds into injury-time McMahon and Eamon Wallace clipped over scores to put Meath two clear for the first time.

Meath maintained possession in the added minutes, but in the closing seconds Ronan Ryan was issued a black card when he was forced to bring down a Westmeath attacker. From the resultant free Ronan Wallace flicked the ball on but much to Andy McEntee's delight the ball sailed over the bar rather than under it and Meath held on.

SCORERS

Meath - Jordan Morris 0-3 frees; Bryan McMahon 0-2 one free; Cillian O'Sullivan 0-2 one mark; Thomas O'Reilly 0-1 free; Matt Costello 0-1; Eoin Harkin 0-1; Darragh Campion 0-1; Bryan Menton 0-1; Fionn Reilly 0-1; James Conlon 0-1; Andy Colgan 0-1 free; Eamon Wallace 0-1.

Westmeath - John Heslin 0-7 five frees; Luke Loughlin 0-3 two '45'; Ger Egan 0-2; Ronan O'Toole 0-1; Ray Connellan 0-1; Ronan Wallace 0-1.

TEAMS

Meath - Andy Colgan; Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Ronan Ryan; Eoin Harkin, Shane McEntee, Donal Keogan; Bryan Menton, Padraic Harnan; Ethan Devine, Darragh Campion, Mathew Costello; Jordan Morris, Thomas O'Reilly, Cillian O'Sullivan. Subs - Bryan McMahon for O'Reilly, James Conlon for Campion both half-time, Jason Scully for Costello, Fionn Reilly for Harkin both 51m, Eamon Wallace for Devine 58m, Jack O'Connor for Morris 67m, David Dillon for O'Sullivan 74m.

Westmeath - Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin Maguire, Boidu Sayeh; James Dolan, Ronan Wallace, Jamie Gonoud; Sam Duncan, Ray Connellan; David Lynch, Denis Corroon, Ger Egan; Ronan O'Toole, John Heslin, Luke Loughlin. Subs - Kieran Martin for Lynch 53m, Lorcan Dolan for Smith 62m, Brandon Kelly for Egan 74m.

Referee - Brendan Cawley (Kildare).