Cahill hat-trick fires Meath past Farney Army

The Meath minors produced a stunning late come-back to get the better of Monaghan in the All-Ireland MFC Tier 2 quarter final on Saturday.

Meath 3-2-16 (29)

Monaghan 3-3-11 (26)

Joe Coweley's Meath minors booked their spot in the All Ireland MFC Tier 2 semi-final with a fantastic hard-fought win over Monaghan at Carrickmacross on Saturday. Since they suffered that heartbreaking defeat to Offaly, Meath have really bought into this tier two championship and for the second week in a row showed great determination and hunger to get themselves ahead at a crucial stage.

A hat-trick from Dunsany's Stephen Cahill, which included a late winning goal proved crucial to Meath's victory. The Dunsany corner-forward was involved in a lot of what Meath did well on the day and had an exceptional performance. Like his brother Harry, Stephen Cahill has a bright future ahead of him.

Meath were slightly slow out of the blocks but recovered well in the second quarter and the first of Cahill's goals ensured the Royals held a narrow one-point advantage at half-time.

The game remained on a knife edge in the third quarter. In the 22nd minute, Cahill was dragged down for a penalty but Adam McEvoy's attempt was saved by the Monaghan netminder.

Monaghan rattled off 1-4 without reply to give themselves a cushion of five points towards the end of normal time. Cometh the hour, cometh the man and St Peter's Charlie Gallagher kicked 0-5 including two two-pointers to draw Meath level.

In the dying moments, Stephen Cahill, who was not satisfied to just tap over and edge Meath ahead, secured his hat-trick and put Meath up by three with little time left for Monaghan to respond.

Sean Smith opened the scoring but a two-pointer from James Ennis leapfrogged Monaghan into an early lead. The Meath defence was ripped open by Shane Byrne who produced a great finish to put the Ulster outfit up by four after 10 minutes.

The following five minutes were played at a ferocious pace which seemed to slightly favour Meath as they outscored Monaghan 0-4 to 0-3 during this period with a brace of points from Adam McEvoy and one each for Cahill and Smith.

The turning point in that first-half came when a perfectly weighted kick pass from Tadgh Foley cut out the whole Monaghan defence and landed lovely for Cahill. Cahill showed great composure to take the ball around Liam Mulholland and calmy finish to an empty Monaghan net.

That goal gave Meath a good boost and they scored the next three points in a row. Two more McEvoy points came either side of a well-taken Smith score.

Monaghan began to find their rhythm again late on in the first-half and hit the last two scores of the opening 30 minutes through Sean Murtagh and Ennis. At the break, Meath led narrowly 1-9 to 1-8.

Just as they did in the first-half, Monaghan hit the ground running at the restart and a second Byrne goal gave them a 2-10 to 1-10 lead after 40 minutes.

Meath responded well though and a well-struck Charlie Finnegan 45' was followed up by the second of Cahill's goals. Sean Smith had the initial opportunity but when his shot was saved, Cahill was the first to react and he found the back of the net to put Meath up by one.

A Tristan Nugent free brought the sides level again before Meath hit 0-3 on the spin through Declan Byrne, McEvoy and substitute Lewis Ryan. That nice spell for Meath was slightly spoiled when Murtagh struck a lovely two-pointer.

Cahill was going in search of his hatrick when he burst through the Monaghan defence but he was dragged to the ground inside the large rectangle by Connor Mulligan and Maggie Farrelly awarded Meath a penalty.

Adam McEvoy's shot from the spot was saved by Mulholland and McEvoy's attempt at the rebound was a tad high but Meath still got a vital point out of it.

Mulholland's save gave Monaghan a bit of belief and between the 55th minute and the 59th minute, the Farney army hit 1-4 without reply including a two-pointer from Ennis and a goal for full-forward Tristan Nugent.

With three minutes of normal time remaining, Monaghan led 3-17 to 2-15. However, Meath were not dead yet, up stepped Charlie Gallagher who had had a quiet game for his standards, and the St Peter's club man hit 0-5 in a row including a two-point free and a two-pointer to draw Meath level.

When Cahill received a pass late on from Declan Byrne, a point probably would have been sufficient, but nothing was going to stop the Dunsany man from getting his hat-trick and from a fair distance out, Cahill buried the ball low and hard into the back of the Monaghan net. A couple of minutes later Maggie Farrelly's final whistle confirmed Meath's victory and their spot in the All-Ireland MFC Tier 2 semi-final.

Meath - Charlie Finnegan (0-1 one 45'); Charlie O'Connor, Conall O'Sullivan, Glen Callaghan; Tadgh Foley, Eoghan McBrearty, Niall Lawless; Declan Byrne (0-1), Charlie Gallagher (0-5, one free, one two-point, one two-point free); Will Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Sean Delaney (0-1); Adam McEvoy (0-6 three frees), Sean Smith (0-4), Stephen Cahill (3-1). Subs - Lewis Ryan (0-1) for Foley 39m, Luke Casey for Lawless 46m, Jess O'Rourke for Delaney, Robert Johnson for McEvoy both 61m, Shane Bennett for O'Connor 63m.

Monaghan - Liam Mulholland; Sean Meegan, Conor Mulligan, Darragh Feeney; Ross Lennon, Oliver Kelly, Tiernan McGeugh; Mark Drury, James Ennis (0-5, one two-point, one two-point free); Shane Byrne (2-1), Harry McQuillan, Ryan Lynch (0-2); Harry Hamill (0-1), Tristan Nugent (1-1 one free), Sean Murtagh (0-7, one free, one two-point). Subs- Adam Treanor for McQuillan 34m, Dermot Farrelly for McGeugh 63m.

Maggie Farrelly (Cavan).