Hungry Meath keep Christy Ring Cup dream alive

Johnny Greville's Meath kept their Christy Ring Cup hopes alive with a one-point win over Derry

Meath 3-17

Derry 1-22

Tom Gannon

Meath's trip to Celtic Park on Saturday afternoon proved to be a fruitful one as they just about got the better of Derry in a thrilling encounter. The win kept the Royals' hopes of Christy Ring Cup glory alive. Those hopes were given another boost when word filtered through that Meath's conquerers in round-one, London, only managed a draw against Wicklow.

After the comprehensive victory over Tyrone last week, Johnny Greville said that his players would need to reproduce that performance and more if they were going to get over the line against Derry, thankfully his side responded to the challenge and shifted into another gear this week.

The contest was intense and that intensity was not relieved by the referee who had a poor showing by all accounts. Regardless, Meath were incredibly hungry from the get-go and they did not let Derry build any momentum for the majority of this tight contest.

A brace of Mikey Cole goals got Meath off to a flying start and after 15 minutes they led by 2-5 to 0-3. Meath's opening two scores came from Jack Regan and Nicky Potterton before Damien Healy set Cole up for his first net-finder.

A long free into the danger area from James Toher was broken down by Healy before Cole found the net again. Regan and Derry's Meehaul McGrath traded points before Toher and Regan scored two points in quick succession which gave Meath an eight-point lead after a quarter of an hour.

Derry needed to respond quickly and they did rattle off three points in a row through two from Cormac O'Doherty and one from Christy McNaughton.

Lorcan Byrne put an end to Meath's brief dry spell before Regan and O'Doherty traded two blows each as Meath kept Derry at arm's length with a five-point lead. Kris Gorman finished off proceedings in the opening half with a well-struck score and at the interval, Meath led by 2-9 to 0-9.

Derry came out of the blocks fast in the second-half and had three points rattled off in no time through Ruairi O'Mianain, O'Doherty and Eamon Conway.

The Ulster's side good work early in the half was undone though when James Kelly sent a speculative long ball in for Damien Healy to claim and the Longwood machine buried the sliotar to the back of the net. Meath's third goal reinstated their half-time advantage of six points.

Derry were not dead and buried yet though, An O'Doherty free came back off the post and landed nicely for Shea Cassidy. The corner forward managed to weave through the Meath defence and score a goal to reduce the gap back to three again. A free apiece for Regan and O'Doherty left Meath with a lead of 3-10 to 1-13 lead after 45 minutes.

Points from O'Doherty and Deaghlan Foley got Derry back to within one, but Meath immediately responded and regained their three-point lead through scores courtesy of Lorcan Byrne and Cian Rogers.

With only 15 minutes left, the game still hung on a knife edge. The sides traded blows as a brace of points from Nicky Potterton and one more from Regan kept the Royals ticking over.

During his brief spell on the pitch as a temp-sub for Regan, Sean Quigley got in on the action and extended the gap between the sides to four with only two minutes of normal time remaining.

Conway pulled one back for Derry but Toher responded with what transpired to be the Royals' last score. Three late points for the men in red and white was not enough to get them back on level terms and Meath hung on for a very important victory.

Meath - Colm O'Riordan; James Kelly, Darragh Kelly, Kyle Donnelly; Michael Burke, James Toher (0-2), Sean Coloe; Joey Cole, Daire Shine; Kris Gorman (0-1), Nicky Potterton (0-3), Jack Regan (0-7 six frees); Damien Healy (1-0), Mikey Cole (2-0), Lorcan Byrne (0-2). Subs - Simon Ennis for Coloe 29m, Cian Rogers (0-1) for James Kelly 42m, James Murray for Gorman 55m, Darren O'Higgins for Cole 56m, Sean Quigley (0-1) for Regan (temp-sub) 67m.

Derry - Sean Kelly; Paddy Kelly, Mark Craig, Patrick Turner; Ruairi O'Mianain (0-1), Richie Mullen, Sean Cassidy; Meehaul McGrath (0-1), Eamon Conway (0-3); Thomas Brady, John Mullan, Cormac O'Doherty (0-12, 0-10 frees, one 45); Deaghlan Foley (0-1), Christy McNaughton (0-1), Shea Cassidy (1-1). Subs - James Friel for Kelly 28m, Cahal Murray for McNaughton (0-1) 47m, Eamon Cassidy for Shea Cassidy 63m, Callum O'Kane for Brady, Ryan McGill (0-1) for John Mullan both 69m.

Referee - James Clarke (Cavan)