Meath no match for talented Lilywhites

The Meath u20 hurlers were knocked out of the championship after a heavy defeat in Kildare

Kildare 3-17

Meath 0-11

Tom Gannon reports

The Meath under-20 hurlers crashed out of the championship on Friday evening after a heavy defeat at the hands of a very talented Kildare side in Hawkfield. There has been a lot of excitement around this Kildare team and the travelling Meath supporters found out very quickly why that hype is warranted.

Kildare got off to a flying start scoring 2-4 in the opening 10 minutes and Meath, despite playing some fine hurling at times, never recovered from that early onslaught.

The opening score came after a questionable decision in the lead-up. Kildares James Dolan appeared to overcarry the sliotar when bearing down on the Meath goal however a free-in was awarded instead. As a result, Fionn Maher opened the scoring for the lilywhites.

Meath opened their account with a free from Mark Leavy but Kildare raced into an eight-point lead after only 10 minutes thanks to two quick goals from James Dolan along with points from Fionn Maher and Oisin Lynam.

After a tough period, Mark Leavy finally got the Royals up and running again with two points in quick succession however Ciaran Kirwan's point restored Kildare's eight-point lead.

Kildare added to their tally further with two more points from midfielder Lynam and one from Killian Harrington. At halftime, Kildare held a commanding but deserving lead of 2-8 to 0-4.

Kildare had brought a lot of energy to the game. Playing some fast-paced through-the-hands hurling, Kildare were able to very quickly travel from one end of the field to the other and they very rarely resorted to pumping a long ball. Meath were struggling to get a handle on this and had very quickly let the game get away from them.

Maher got the scoring underway in the second half with his fourth point. Meath's only scorer to that point, Mark Leavy got two quick frees to pull the gap back to 10 with 25 minutes left in the contest.

Maher and halftime sub Tim Ryan converted to cancel out Leavy's two points. Moments later, Fionn Maher waltzed through the Meath defence and secured Kildare's third goal which cemented the result beyond doubt with 20 minutes still left on the clock

Mark Horan was the first Meath man other than Leavy to get on the scoreboard after 45 minutes before subs Noah Conroy and Darragh Horan also added scores during quite a good period for the Royals.

Maher once again added to Kildare's tally to leave 12 between them with 5 minutes left before Kildare's Theo Frisby made it a 13-point game with a cracking point from a long way out. Alex Bell kept Koldares tally ticking over with his first involvement. Fionn Maher who was immense on the day would have the final say of the match with another score just before the final whistle sounded.

SCORERS

Meath - Mark Leavy 0-8, seven frees; Mark Horan 0-1; Noah Conroy 0-1; Darragh Horan 0-1.

Kildare - Fionn Maher 1-8, six frees; James Dolan 2-0; Oisin Lynam 0-4; Killian Harringtin 0-1; Ciaran Kirwan 0-1; Tim Ryan 0-1; Theo Frisby 0-1; Alex Bell 0-1.

Meath - Ben Mather; Cian O'Sullivan, Cian Colhoun, Conor Dixon; Paul Hennessy, Daire Shine, Craig Gilsenan; Darragh Heffernan, Mark Horan; Lorcan Byrne, Domhnall Rogers, Patrick Jordan; Tom Shine, Paddy Barnwell, Mark Leavy. Subs - Darren O'Higgins for Colhoun HT, Tiernan Anderson for Jordan 36m, Noah Conroy for Hennessy 43m, Darragh Horan for Rogers 43m.

Kildare - Cormac Doolan; Evan O'Briain, Liam O'Reilly, Conor O'Grady; Finnan O'Dulaing, Daniel O'Meara, Bill Hennessy; Oisin Lynam, Cian Boran; Enda Keane, Cian O'Reilly, Ciaran Kirwan; James Dolan, Killian Harrington, Fionn Maher. Subs - Charlie Carroll for C O'Reilly HT, Tim Ryan for Harrington HT, Theo Frisby for Lynam 45m, Alex Bell for Dolan 56m.

Referee - Gearoid McGrath