Rebel rule rumbles Royals

Meath let eight-point half-time lead slip to leave them in All-Ireland last chance saloon

Cork............................... 0-6-18 (30)

Meath ............................1-6-12 (27)

It's becoming a familiar tale in Pairc Ui Rinn for Meath as they slumped to another narrow loss to 14 man Cork, but this defeat leaves a bitter taste and All-Ireland ambitions hanging by a thread.

The loss to the Rebels at the same venue in the league threatened to derail promotion hopes, but Meath recovered. They'll have to do the same again to prolong All-Ireland dreams.

The reason for the bitter taste is that Meath had victory in their grasp as they led by eight points at half-time, but in the space of the opening 11 minutes of the second period there was an 11-point swing as rampant Cork raced into an unlikely three-point lead,

Cork was like raging bulls in that period as they landed heavy blow after heavy blow and left Meath reeling, but then the Royals were gifted a boost when Colm O'Callaghan was harshly red carded after a flailing arm caught Ruairi Kinsella in the face in the 55th minute.

At that stage Meath's deficit was two points and they closed to within one two minutes later when Eoghan Frayne benefitted from another fortunate call by referee Brendan Cawley who spotted a foul on Mathew Costello.

With a numerical advantage Meath could have expected to kick on, but they never got to grips with having an extra player as Cork upped their work rate and intensity to ensure Meath's game management was disrupted.

Meath did manage to get back on level terms when James Conlon and Kinsella kicked points to make it 1-23 to 0-26, but despite there being 10 minutes of additional time the Royals never kicked on.

Cork even had the luxury of a disallowed goal as Ian Maguire had been loitering in the square before palming a cross to the net.

Even that let off didn't boost Meath and while they didn't concede a goal in the contest, they looked vulnerable almost every time Cork attacked.

After squandering four decent goal chances in the opening half, Cork's policy of keeping the scoreboard ticking over proved fruitful with Steven Sherlock delivering a masterclass in two-pointers in his tally of 14 points.

Meath on the other hand looked laboured, bereft of attacking ideas and relied heavily on the excellence of Conlon and the sporadic brilliance of Kinsella.

Time again they ran up blind alleys, were turned back from goal by intense tackling and they often took wrong options when delivering passes or taking on shots.

The second half return of eight points was in total contrast to the 1-16 tallied in the opening period. There was a decent breeze in Meath's favour in the first 35 minutes, and they played well. The same cannot be said for the second-half.

It took Conlon just 11 seconds to justify the decision to start him and the sides traded scores as Maurice Shanley and Mark Cronin responded for Cork before Conlon and Kinsella sandwiched a score from Paul Walsh to leave the teams tied 0-3 each.

A two-point free from Sean Brennan was cancelled out by a similar score from Sherlock after Costello carelessly breached the three-up rule and after a couple of poorly executed attempts from Kinsella and Morris Cork took advantage with O'Callaghan fisting over and Sherlock tapping over a 13-metre free to make it 0-7 to 0-5.

Cork almost grabbed a goal in the 19th minute but Brennan brilliantly pushed Cronin's effort onto the post and Kinsella added to that relief when he kicked a two-pointer to bring Meath level for the fifth time, 0-7 each.

Another two-pointer from Conlon edged Meath ahead in the 21st minute, but again Cork cut open the Meath rearguard with Sean McDonnell having a goal chance smothered out for a '45' by Brennan and Sean Coffey which Sherlock converted. Sherlock then landed another free to level it up for a sixth time.

After Morris made it 0-10 to 0-9 Meath had another let off as Luke Fahy's goal attempt was saved by Bryan Menton and that inspired a glorious five minute spell that yielded 1-6 for Meath.

Frayne kickstarted that spell with a well worked two-pointer and Ciaran Caulfield applied a fine finish for a goal after being set free by Morris.

Another Frayne two-pointer made it 1-14 to 0-9 and even though O'Callaghan pulled one back for Cork Meath stretched their lead further with Conlon and Costello on target.

Chris Og Jones responded with his only point for Cork, but Meath's lead could have been greater at half-time had Coffey not driven a goal chance at O'Callaghan's legs to keep the score at 1-16 to 0-11 at the break.

David Buckley and Morris traded points in the opening two minutes of the second period, but then Meath lost their way as Cork hit a purple patch.

Four points from frees, including a two-pointer from Cronin and two single score efforts from Sherlock were quickly followed by a two-pointer from Buckley.

Meath were all at sea.

Another Cronin point was followed by a brace of two-pointers from Sherlock in the space of 30 seconds as Cork went from eight points down into a 0-23 to 1-17 lead by the 12th minute of the second-half.

Brennan landed a crucial two-point free to help Meath settle, but an easy score for Maguire and another tap over free for Sherlock stretched Cork's lead to 0-25 to 1-19.

After Conlon closed the deficit back to two points Cork lost O'Callaghan to a red card and when Frayne converted a free a minute later it looked as if Meath would kick on - but it wasn't to be!

Full-back Daniel O'Mahony galloped forward to fist over unchallenged and even though Conlon and Kinsella restored parity Meath were still making basic errors that gifted Cork opportunities with Cronin edging them ahead from another free.

After Maguire's goal was disallowed Kinsella brought Meath level for the eighth time, but the mesmerising Sherlock followed up with a two-pointer.

Meath struggled to create chances to find scores in the closing eight minutes as Cork held on and closed out the contest with Conor Corbett pointing just as the hooter sounded to cap a disappointing day for the Royals who must now wait a week before they will find out who they will face in the losers round 2B in three weeks time.

Cork - Patrick Doyle; Maurice Shanley (0-1), Daniel O'Mahony (0-1), Seán Meehan; Brian O'Driscoll, Tommy Walsh, Luke Fahy; Colm O'Callaghan (0-2), Ian Maguire (0-1); Paul Walsh (0-1), Seán McDonnell, David Buckley (0-3 one two-pointer); Mark Cronin (0-5 one two-point free, one free), Chris Óg Jones (0-1), Steven Sherlock (0-14 one two-point free, three two-pointers, five frees, one '45'). Subs - Ruairi Deane for McDonnell 52m, Sean Walsh for Buckley, Rory Maguire for Fahy both 56m, Conor Corbett (0-1) for Walsh 61m.

Meath - Sean Brennan (0-4 two two-point frees); Ronan Ryan, Sean Rafferty, Seamus Lavin; Donal Keogan, Bryan Menton, Ciaran Caulfield (1-0); Cian McBride, Charlie O'Connor; Sean Coffey, Jordan Morris (0-2), Ruairi Kinsella (0-5 one two-pointer); Mathew Costello (0-1), Eoghan Frayne (0-5 one free, two two-pointers), James Conlon (0-7 one two-pointer). Subs - Jack Flynn for Menton 44m, Jack O'Connor for C O'Connor 53m, Cathal Hickey for Frayne 56m, Brian O'Halloran for Rafferty 63m, Aaron Lynch for Conlon 64m.

Referee - Brendan Cawley (Kildare).