MEATH… 0-20
WEXFORD… 2-10
When is a two-pointer not a two-pointer? That ended up being a pivotal question in the dying embers of this Leinster U-20 FC quarter final in Ashbourne on Wednesday evening.
When a referee, line umpire and two goal umpires can’t make up their minds. Dunboyne’s John Harkin lofting over a skyscraper for which the flagman originally went for orange, before being overruled by Kildare referee Lee Moore until he in turn was forced to do a double take by one of his line umpires.
Now, initially, you would have thought it would not have made that big of a difference because, even without the dubious deuce, Meath held a 0-19 to 1-09 lead at the time. Where things might have got messy, though, was after Yellowbellies sub Jason Sheridan somehow managed to navigate the ball through a forest of bodies and past Matt Kealy to leave Royal bums a little bit squeaky until the fleet footed Ben Corkery clipped over his third point to ensure safe passage to the penultimate hurdle in the last of nearly eight minutes of added time.
The hair raising conclusion was actually in keeping with how the script had proceeded all evening. After the visitors’ Shane Reddy put them in front almost immediately from the throw in, Harkin fashioned an equaliser at that stage that was all his own work straight away thereafter.
And so began a point for point remainder of the first half as Tadhg Martyn and Corkery and Jamie Murphy and Rian Stafford kept riposting to the best Tom Funge and James Lawless could fire at them. With the result that when Stafford flashed over a free in first half injury time, it gave the locals a slightly surprising 0-08 to 0-07 half time lead.
It evaporated fairly quickly after the start of the second half but the accuracy of Harkin, Corkery, Jamie Murphy and a trademark Michael McIvor scud for downtown, as legendary RTE basketball commentator Timmy McCarthy might have titled it, kept Cathal O’Bric’s team at arm’s length away from their opponents until, completely against the run of play, Rory Gilbert netted for Wexford to tie matters at 0-13 to 1-10.
However, to Meath’s credit, they held their composure and worked their way into a seven point lead via a Harkin double (seemingly!) and singles from Stafford (two), Corkery and Zach Thornton gave the green and gold a 0-19 to 1-09 buffer with 62 minutes on the clock.
Then came the chaos in this dying embers before Corkery essayed over a steadier to ensure the defending provincial champions stay upright for another week at least.
Scorers – R. Stafford (0-6, 3F, 1x2PT), J. Harkin (0-4, 1x2PT), B. Corkery and J. Murphy (0-3 each), M. McIvor (0-2, 2PT), T. Martyn and Z. Thornton (0-1 each).
MEATH – M. Kealy; S. Jordan, R. Early, C. O’Hare; T. Martyn, F. White, F. Hartigan; E. Armstrong, M. McIvor; R. Stafford, J. Harkin, Z. Thornton; B. Corkery, J. Murphy, L. Jennings.
SUBS – C. Yore for White, M. O’Sullivan for Jennings, C. O’Brien for Thorton, A. Farrelly for Corkery.
Referee – Lee Moore (Kildare)
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