Flat Meath stumble to another defeat

Tailteann Cup looms large on the horizon

Don't be fooled by the five-point margin of defeat, this performance was far worse than the scoreline suggests as Meath were comprehensively beaten, 0-8 to 0-13, by hosts Kildare in the final game to be played in St Conleth's Park in it current state.

Needing just a draw to cement fourth place in NFL Div 2 and a guaranteed place in the Sam Maguire series during the summer, Meath were never at the races against Kildare side that are far from world beaters either.

The harsh reality of the situation for Colm O'Rourke and his management team is that, based on recent performances, Meath are a Tailteann Cup team and are still miles off being competitive with the best of the rest outside the top four in the country.

Meath looked a nervous wreck on Sunday. They huffed and puffed, but barely mustered enough wind to topple a house of cards.

Kildare have been poor in their year's league, but they outplayed Meath in every department - showing first every time, tough in every tackle, quicker and more decisive in their decision making and more assured in their execution.

So often Meath threw away possession under little or often no pressure. Stray handpasses, wayward long balls, hospital passes put team mates in awful jeopardy and Kildare invariably punished them.

There was a lack of team work. Meath looked like a collection of 15 individuals. There was very little passages of knitted football, there was no no running off the shoulder, no support play for an isolated team mate, no bite or bluster in the physicality stakes.

A damning indictment of Meath's play is that they managed just two points from play, both of which came in a five minute spell towards the end of the opening half and at a time when they found themselves 0-1 to 0-6 adrift.

Kildare goalkeeper Mark Donnellan was a spectator. His only job was to kick the ball out after a score or a wide and there was more of the latter than there was on the former!

The only positive, and we are stretching the boundaries of the meaning of the word positive, is that Meath stuck at it and never gave up. They converted three frees, two from Donal Lenihan and one from Mathew Costello, to close the gap to four points at the clock ticked into five minutes of injury time.

A goal then would have made it interesting, but there was no chance of that scenario becoming a reality as Kildare shut up shop and Meath lacked the key to open the door.

With the 'next best' prize on offer, a place in the All-Ireland series, after the promotion hopes ended weeks earlier there was still plenty for Meath to play for, enough for them to bring a level of intensity and a hunger to win.

Instead they produced their worst performance of the campaign. Sure the margins of defeat against Dublin and Derry were greater, but they were All-Ireland SFC semi-finals in 2022 and coasted to promotion this year.

Both sides showed why they were bottom half sides as they struggled to make an impact on the scoreboard in the early stages. Kildare eventually opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Paddy Woodgate converted a free after Ronan Jones fouled Mick O'Grady. That free was the first of 11 scored in an insipid game.

The next scores were rare efforts from play as David Hyland pounced on the break and then Darragh Kirwan burned Michael Flood for pace before clipping over.

Woodgate added his second free from 13-metres to stretched Kildare's advantage to 0-4 to 0-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Jack Flynn finally opened Meath's account with a monster free from over 50 metres, but Kildare found space in attack a lot easier as Jack Robinson converted after claiming a brilliant mark and then Kirwan pointed in acres of space as the Meath defence stood off.

If it was raining soup Meath would have had a fork. Ronan Jones hit the upright from distance, but Diarmuid Moriarty fired wide after Meath had won the ball back.

Cillian O'Sullivan took matters into his own hands and scored Meath's first from play in the 28th minute and after Aaron Lynch limped out of the action Jones lofted over from outside the 45-metre line to close the gap to 0-3 to 0-6.

Despite being outplayed Meath were back in the game, they needed a strong finish to the half, but instead they conceded twice more with Kirwan and Robinson, from a 13-metre free, ensuring a 0-8 to 0-3 interval lead for the hosts.

Meath needed a bright start to the second period to claw their way back into contention, but it took them 15 minutes to trouble the scoreboard and in that spell Kildare stretched their lead to 0-11 to 0-3 with points from Robinson (free), Paul Cribbin and Kirwan.

With the game in the bag Kildare could afford to give game to returning players. Lenihan landed two frees, but a careless foul by Moriarty gifted Kildare another tap over free which Jimmy Hyland converted.

Close range frees from Costello and Lenihan (two) threatened to set up a grandstand finish, but Kirwan capped an excellent display with the closing point from a free as Meath were left to lament a sorry end to a disappointing campaign that had promised so much in the opening couple of rounds.

SCORERS

Kildare - Darragh Kirwan 0-5 one free; Jack Robinson 0-3 two frees, one mark; Paddy Woodgate 0-2 frees; David Hyland 0-1; Paul Cribbin 0-1; Jimmy Hyland 0-1 free.

Meath - Donal Lenihan 0-4 frees; Jack Flynn 0-1 free; Cillian O'Sullivan 0-1; Ronan Jones 0-1; Mathew Costello 0-1 free.

TEAMS

Kildare - Mark Donnellan; Mick O'Grady, Shea Ryan, Ryan Houlihan; David Hyland, Kevin Flynn, Jack Sargent; Aaron Masterson, Kevin O'Callaghan; Barry Coffey, Ben McCormack, Alex Beirne; Jack Robinson, Darragh Kirwan, Paddy Woodgate. Subs - Paul Cribben for Beirne half-time, Daniel Flynn for Robinson, Jimmy Hyland for Woodgate both 50 mins, Kevin Feely for Masterson 53m, Paddy McDermott for Coffey 64m.

Meath - Harry Hogan; Adam O'Neill, Michael Flood, Dan O'Neill; Ross Ryan, Padraic Harnan, Eoin Harkin; Ronan Jones, Jack Flynn; Daithi McGowan, Mathew Costello, Jason Scully; Aaron Lynch, Diarmuid Moriarty, Cillian O'Sullivan. Subs - Donal Lenihan for Lynch 29 mins, Cathal Hickey for Harkin 31m, Jack O'Connor Flood for half-time, Thomas O'Reilly for O'Sullivan 47m, Keith Curtis for Moriarty 60m.

Referee - John Gilmartin (Sligo).