No Croke Park joy for Meath champions

No All-Ireland title but what a 12 months it has been for Trim.

The Meath side's hopes of landing the All-Ireland Club IFC title ended in disappointment when they were defeated, 3-14 to 2-5, by a brilliant Steelstown Brian Ogs side at Croke Park today.

The loss ended a remarkable run of 20 consecutive victories chalked up by manager Kevin Reilly and his team.

The Meath intermediate champions made a dream start to the game when Mikey Cullen fired to the net in the opening minutes.

However the Derry side started to unveil their considerable talent and they surged in front to lead 0-10 to 1-2 at the interval.

Little went right for Trim but there was no doubt either they were defeated by the better side.

Steelstown were reduced to 14 men when they had a player sent off early in the second-half but they continued to create and take chances.

The Derry side added three goals in the second-half with Cahir McMonigle finding the net from a penalty while Ben McCarron and Emmett Dean also found the target. Trim's cause wasn't helped by a black card shown to Alan Douglas.

Trim worked a spectacular goal in the second half, scored by Eoin O'Connor after an Aaron Lynch effort was blocked.

Lynch fired over two second-half points for a battling Trim side while Ciaran O'Rourke also fashioned a fine score but there was no stopping the Derry side.

One of the highlights of Trim's afternoon was a brilliant late save by their goalkeeper Peter Farrell.

Trim's great run finally ended.