Meath get right result

GAA

Sunday was all about securing two valuable NFL Div 2 North points for Meath. Nothing else was of any value or importance.

However, Meath don't like to do things the easy way and with 15 minutes remaining they trailed by four points.

Westmeath had been reduced to 14 players when Sam Duncan picked up a black card, but they kicked the next two scores to build that four-point cushion.

Meath looked bereft of ideas.

The previous 50 minutes was like watching snooker balls roll from one end of the table to the other and back again as both sides swarmed in attack and flooded defences - scurrying up and down the field trying to make scoring opportunities as difficult as possible, it wasn't pretty to watch.

With just nine points on the board for 55 minutes of hard work Meath struggled to break down Westmeath's determined defence.

At half-time Andy McEntee introduced some added pace to attack with Bryan McMahon and James Conlon replacing Darragh Campion and Thomas O'Reilly.

Both starters had struggled to make an impression, they were well marshalled by Westmeath who limited Campion's flair and shut down O'Reilly's impact - maybe Conlon and McMahon might have more luck?

The switches didn't have an immediate effect. Westmeath stretched their one-point interval lead to three, but then the tide started to turn.

McMahon's first significant impact was to win a free and convert it himself. That score sparked a bit of life and Bryan Menton powered forward to close the gap to one.

Westmeath continued to press and forced Meath into mistakes.

However their numbers were reduced with Duncan's black card and the effort put in to keep Meath at bay for the first six minutes of that sin-binning took a toll that had a telling effect on the outcome.

Instead of sitting back and soaking up the pressure, Westmeath continued to try to impress at both ends of the field. Their ploy appeared to work when they kicked two wonderful points to stretch their lead to four, but their exertions were clearly taking a toll.

Two more Meath substitutes, Jason Scully and Fionn Reilly, brought with them fresh legs and with Westmeath reluctant to use their bench they wilted in the bright sun that replaced the squally showers that had fallen earlier.

Reilly's first feel of the football saw him receive a clever pass from Donal Keogan and stroke it over the bar. Two minutes later Scully was hauled down and Morris converted - the fresh legs were having an impact.

Meath were full on throwing Hail Marys and when Conlon nicked over a fine point just before Duncan returned to restore Westmeath to 15 again, the deficit was down to one.

Westmeath looked exhausted. Meath were fading too. Menton and Cillian O'Sullivan both pulled up with cramp, Keogan's fatigue led to a late tackle on Ray Connellan which led to Heslin's free which made it 0-14 to 0-12.

But Westmeath looked out for the count. Duncan was lucky not to pick up a second sanction for a lazy, tired challenge on Menton, but Morris converted the free and when Andy Colgan restored parity from a free following a foul on McMahon with four minutes plus injury-time remaining there only ever looked like one winner.

The tiring Morris was replaced by Jack O'Connor and his impact was immediate as he was involved in creating the point for McMahon that gave Meath the lead for for only the third time in the game.

Seconds later three substitutes combined when O'Connor picked out Scully racing through on goals, but when the Oldcastle man failed to connect, Eamon Wallace was on hand to squeeze the ball inside the right post to give Meath a two-point cushion for the first time.

Three points in four minutes turned a losing situation into a crucial winning one.

Westmeath's only reward was an opportunist late point as Meath held on to get their campaign off to a winning start.