Meath… 0-12
Donegal… 1-10
Why or how Milwall ever came up with their infamous “We are Milwall, nobody likes us, we don’t care” chant is beyond me. It’s not as if they were ever any good. Affixing the same mantra to Meath football teams is far easier to understand.
Reason being none other than the green-eyed monster itself – jealously. When our lads were at their peak in Sean’s first coming, the got rode by referees more than some horses in the Epsom Derby. And lo and behold, when our ladies become the best team in the land, they too are horrendously treated and basically cheated by officialdom.
That said, the officiating in Pairc Tailteann on Saturday evening was abyssmal for both sides. Neither goal – one for each side – should have been disallowed and the late free given against Shauna Ennis late on was nothing short of scandalous.
It must be said, though, that the home said will surely rue only converting 12 out of 20 + scoring chances. Especially when the scores were tied at 0-11 to 1-08, several chances to hit the front were coughed up which, if even one of them had been converted, would most likely have broken the Donegal spirit.
In fairness to Maxi Curran’s charges, they’ve proven over the last couple of seasons that’s one element their makeup which is beyond question.
Playing with the significant breeze at their back, Niamh Hegarty’s goal gave them a deserved lead on the run-in to half time and even though Emma Duggan and Niamh O’Sullivan gradually hauled the champions back into the contest, the Ulster laides closed the first half scoring to lead by three. 0-08 to 1-08
Jenny Rispin et al won’t have been too put out though. For one thing, they would have the elements in their favour after the break, and for another, they were very fortunate not to be even further adrift at the midway point owing to the Armagh referee dubiously disallowing another Donegal goal.
Given the reprieve, to be fair, Meath were the dominant team for the majority of the second half as Duggan – in particular – and Vikki Wall and O’Sullivan looked to have them primed to kick until those couple of late dastardly decisions let the from the Hills off the hook and Karen Guthrie took full advantage of that wriggle room.
The upshot of which is that Meath now face the unenviable task of trying to overthrow the Kingdom in their own fiefdom. On form, and perhaps even on paper, few will give Rispin’s Royals much of a chance.
What of it. Our teams have tradionally always been at their best when written off. We did it in 1975, we did in ’86, ’96, the girls did in twice in 2020 and the lads pulled it off most recently against Down.
A couple more displays of same over the next few weeks would do nicely again.
MEATH – M. McGuirk; A. Sheridan, M. K. Lynch, K. Newe; N. Gallogly, S. Ennis, E. Duggan (0-7); M. O’Shaugnessy, A. Minogue; M. Thynne, V. Wall (0-2), M. Byrne (0-2); O. Lally, S. Grimes, N. O’Sullivan (0-1).
SUB – C. Smyth for Byrne.
Referee – D. Carolan (Armagh)
Leave a Reply