Meath fire six past Donegal to book All-Ireland final spot

Joe Cowely's Meath minors put in an incredible performance at the Athletic Grounds as they cruised their way into a Paul McGirr Cup All-Ireland MFC final.

Meath 6-11

Donegal 0-12

Tom Gannon

Meath cruised to victory in the All-Ireland MFC Tier 2 semi-final after they found the Donegal net five times in last quarter of the contest. The win at the Athletic Grounds sets up a final clash against Kildare who defeated Joe Cowely's side in the Leinster MFC group stage at St Conleth's in April.

Since that night in Newbridge, this Meath side has improved massively and their overall performance on Saturday was exceptional. Meath's big game players really came to the fore in the very impressive victory.

The partnership of Charlie Gallagher and Declan Byrne continued to impress in midfield. Hat-trick hero from the quarter-final, Stephen Cahill, was in flying form again but it was the full forward, Sean Smyth, who stole the show and the Skryne player finished with a tally of 2-3.

With a strong wind at their backs, Meath dominated possession for most of the first-half and were probably, if anything, disappointed to be going in at half-time with only a five-point advantage.

Donegal started the second-half brightly and at the three-quarter mark the Ulster outfit were level with the Royals. However, from here, Cowely's young guns seized control and for the remainder kept Donegal scoreless while they hit 5-2 without response.

During that fantastic final quarter, the Meath goals were provided by Smyth, Cahill, Niall Lawless, Luke Casey and Jeff Foley. At the opposite end, Charlie Finnegan pulled off a remarkable save from a penalty hit by Donegal's Tomas Carr.

Meath raced into an early 0-5 to 0-1 lead with scores courtesy of a two-point Charlie Gallagher free, Cahill, Smyth and a well-struck outside of the boot point from Cillian Murphy.

Carr and Joseph Gibbons hit two points on the spin for Donegal but those scores were cancelled out by Charlie Gallagher's second two-point free.

Gibbons registered another before Cahill found himself clean through on goal and after his heroics the week previous, everyone expected the Dunsany star to go for a goal but instead, he fisted over to leave Meath leading by 0-8 to 0-4 after 25 minutes.

In the 27th minute, Cahill was dragged down for a penalty, Smyth stepped up to take it and he sent Ronan O'Donnell the wrong way to secure the first of six Meath goals.

At this stage, Meath held a 1-8 to 0-4 lead and looked in complete control. Two injury-time frees gave Donegal something to bring in with them at the break as the Royals led 1-8 to 0-6.

Donegal came out firing in the second-half and dominated the early exchanges. Points from Jack Gallagher, Shane Sweeney, Danny McReady and Gibbons reduced the gap back to one before Smyth settled the ship with a free in the 41st minute.

Two Donegal scores from Jack Gallagher and Sweeney levelled the contest in the 45th minute but that seemed to light a fire under the Royals as they completely seized momentum.

A patient build-up play was finished off by a speculative loopy shot from Niall Lawless which found the top corner of the Donegal net. Smyth followed up with a free a few minutes later.

Substitute Luke Casey set up Smyth who fired an absolute rocket past O'Donnell for Meath's third goal. Charlie Gallagher added a nice point before Cahill cut in from the left-hand side and sealed Meath's fourth green flag to give the Royals a 4-11 to 0-12 advantage with five minutes remaining.

Donegal's Shane Sweeney was then fouled inside the rectangle and referee Enda Mallon awarded a second penalty in the contest. Tomas Carr's effort from the spot was brilliantly saved by Finnegan and Meath had the winning line in their sight.

Casey and Jeff Foley added two further goals as Meath romped to victory and booked themselves a spot in the All-Ireland MFC Tier 2 final.

Meath - Charlie Finnegan; Charlie O'Connor, Conall O'Sullivan, Glen Callaghan; Lewis Ryan, Eoghan McBrearty, Niall Lawless (1-0); Declan Byrne, Charlie Gallagher (0-5 two two-point free); Will Byrne, Cillian Murphy (0-1), Sean Delaney; Jesse O'Rourke, Sean Smyth (2-3 one penalty, two frees), Stephen Cahill(1-2). Subs - Adam McEvoy for O'Rourke 25m, Luke Casey (1-0) for Lawless, Shane Bennett for Ryan both 46m, Robert Johnson for Byrne 51m, Jeff Foley (1-0) for Delaney 56m.

Armagh - Ronan O'Donnell; Christopher O'Donnell, Jamie Gavigan, Daithi Molloy; Cathal Doherty, Evan Daly, Conor Farrell; Kalvin McLaughlin, Cathal McGee; Jack Gallagher (0-2), Tomas Carr (0-2 one free), Joseph Gibbons (0-3); Thomas Lenehan, Shane Sweeney (0-4 three frees) Odhran Ryan. Subs - Danny McReady (0-1) for Lenehan 27m, Evan Hickey for Daly, Peter McLoughlin for Farrell both half-time, Joe Doherty for Ryan 41m, Oisin Mullen for Gibbons 56m.

Referee - Enda Mallon.