Meath teams named for games against Longford and Dublin

 

On Saturday evening Meath will continue the defence of their O'Byrne Cup crown when they welcome Longford to Ashbourne for a 5pm throw-in and on Sunday afternoon All-Ireland champions Dublin will provide the opposition in Pairc Tailteann for the Sean Cox Fundraiser at 1.30pm.
Following last Saturday's comfortable victory over Laois in O'Moore Park, McEntee expects to give game time to players who didn't feature while he also hopes to field a strong 15 for the visit of the four-in-a-row All-Ireland champions the following day.
Saturday evening's clash with Longford, while not exactly a revenge mission for last summer's shock Leinster SFC loss at Pearse Park, will provide the Meath players with a shot of redemption and another victory would 
move them one step closer to an O'Byrne Cup semi-final spot.
However, there is some confusion over Saturday evening's game as when the draws for the O'Byrne Cup were made back in September Longford were not in Meath's three-team group.
Initially it was believed that Meath would have games against Laois and Wexford with the group winners advancing to the semi-finals. Longford were drawn with Wicklow and Louth, yet last Saturday evening Louth played Wexford and now this Saturday Meath will play Longford - confused?
No matter what the permutations for the group, Meath will view Saturday's game against Longford as an opportunity to gain a small measure of revenge for the championship loss.
There was a little bit of history created when Meath and Longford clashed in the O'Byrne Cup last January as the game finished in a draw after Meath surrendered a four-point lead in injury-time and the contest was decided by the first free-kick shoot-out, which the Royals won.
While defending the O'Byrne Cup might seem more important than a challenge game, playing Dublin for such an important fundraiser has elevated Sunday's game against Jim Gavin's men to a higher status than usual.
Gavin has promised to field a strong Dublin team for Sunday's clash, so it is sure to be a tough test for whichever 15 McEntee decides to deploy in front of what is expected to be a close to capacity crowd at Pairc Tailteann.
Five players made their first starts for Meath in the win over Laois while another five also made their first appearances for the senior team as substitutes.
It is expected that McEntee will hand debuts to several more players over the 
weekend, but the lure of taking on Dublin is sure to convince the Meath manager to field as strong a team as possible.

 

The Meath team to face Longford in Ashbourne this evening (Saturday) at 5pm is - Andrew Beakey; Thomas McGovern, Shane Glynn, Shane Gallagher; Níall Kane, Gavin McCoy, Robert Garry; Danny Quinn, Owen McDonnell; Seán Reilly, Liam Ferguson, Niall Hickey; Ben Brennan, Graham Reilly, Daithí McGowan. Subs - Mark Brennan, Cian Delvin, Robin Clarke, Seán Curran, Eoin Lynch, Thomas O'Reilly, Bryan Menton, Darragh McGovern.

 

The Meath team to face Dublin in the Sean cox fundraiser in Pairc Tailteann on Sunday (1.30pm) is - Andrew Colgan; Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Ronan Ryan; James McEntee, Shane McEntee, Donal Keogan; Seán Tobin, Adam Flanagan; Bryan Menton, Darragh Campion, Ethan Devine; Bryan McMahon, Michael Newman, Thomas O’Reilly. Subs - Mark Brennan, Barry Dardis, Ben Brennan, Cian Devlin, James Conlon, Daithí McGowan, Daniel Quinn, Eoin Lynch, Gavin McCoy, Graham Reilly, Liam Ferguson, Michael Burke, Niall Hickey, Níall Kane, Owen McDonnell, Robert Garry, Robin Clarke, Seán Curran, Seán Reilly, Shane Gallagher, Shane Glynn, Thomas McGovern, Andrew Beakey.