Meath v Mayo All Ireland SFC Match at a Glance

MAN OF THE MATCH

No one was perfect, far from it. Some players were good, but didn't manage to scale tyhe heights of previous contests, while others struggled to make the impact they are more than capable of. Of Meath's brightest stars the defensive contributions of Seamus Lavin, Sean Rafferty and Donal Keogan were excellent for huge parts. Sean Coffey chipped in with an impressive 1-1, but it was the incessant, non-stop hard work of Ciaran Caulfield as well as his return of 1-2 that marked him as Meath's top performer. He could easily have had a hat-trick of goals but was denied by a great save from Jack Livingstone and also clipped the crossbar with a rasping effort.

MOVE OF THE MATCH

When they are good, Meath are a phenomenally exciting team on the front foot. Some of their movement, particularly on the counter-attack is lightning and the build up for both goals are perfect examples. James Conlon's movement and Cian mcBride's pass to set up Sean Coffey for Meath's second goal was class, but the best of the lot was the build up for Ciaran caulfield's goal. Mathew Costello started it all by pouncing on Enda Hession's mis-solo on the Meath 45 metre line. A great surging run forward released Costello into space where Cian McBride then picked out Caulfield. The Trim man played a superb one-two with Jordan Morris before applying an immaculate finiosh to the net.

TURNING POINT

Everyone will point to the 59th minute red card as being the decisive moment that turned the game in Mayo's favour, but the momentum was already shifting their way before the harsh dismissal of Ronan Jones. Three minutes before the red card Meath were turned over and Cian McHale countered with a point. Tommy Conroy followed with another a minute later. Then James Conlon was clearly fouled when on the attack before the red card incident that saw Jones clash with Jack Coyne and from there Mayo took full advantage. Jordan Flynn kicked a two-pointer within a minute of Jones's dismissal and two more points followed in the subsequent two minutes. So between the three minutes before the red card and the three minutes after it, Mayo scored six points to get back on level terms, 0-18 to 2-12. Meath managed just one more point for the remainder as Mayo saw out the game to perfection.

AND ANOTHER THING

There were laughs and expressions of 'good luck with that' when the stadium announcer in Castlebar asked supporters to stay off the field after the final whistle. When the final hooter did go the grass was awash with a tsunami of green and red as Mayo fans rushed on to congratulate their players. Sadly, one Mayo man thought his best way to celebrate was to strike Robbie Brennan from behind as the Meath manager was talking to the referee. Thankfully such incidents and 'supporters' are very much in the minority, but it is often the few that ruin the fun for the many and the actions of that Mayo fan puts at risk the joy felt by thousands of others who celebrated as they should on the field with their heroes.