MEATH…2-17
CAVAN…1-18
My obsession with and love for farming and machinery, particularly classic or vintage or classic iterations thereof, is something which I hope is still in me even when the pulse is gone. That said, February 1st in a darkening Breffni Park might seem a curious time to be musing on such things, but thus it was.
Because, after filing away another smash and grab effort to rival any those in sacred green vestments have pulled off over the years, the first to enter this writer’s mind was a JF 900 silage harvester. I can sense you shaking your head from here, so allow me to explain. Meath’s number 9 JF saved the day with almost 00 left on the clock!
Well, a slight bit of writer’s licence employed there, as there was still time for the visitors to snaffle Liam Brady’s kickout and Jordan Morris – it had to be him, didn’t it? – to clip over over the insurance score. An indemnity policy which, on the balance play over the 70 plus minutes, they just about deserved. Though their backsides had to thread very close to the meat cleaver to achieve it.
What is probably liable to vex the Royal County camp the most is that the allowed themselves become entrapped in such a labyrinth in the first place. After the versatile and classy Dara McVeety broke the deadlock for the locals, Meath enjoyed a spell of dominance which put them in a healthy position – up by 1-07 to 0-03 – but they should have been out the gate and had it bolted.
When they weren’t, however, Dermot McCabe’s courageous charges seized on their profligacy. Outscoring their guests by 1-05 to a single point for the remainder of the half. The upshot of which was the Breffni blues going in with – to use Simon Harris’s favourite catchphrase – parity of esteem. Made possible by the centre of the Meath defence looking as soft as the underfoot conditions in both goalmouths.
Mat Costello flashing over a trademark score appeared to set Meath on the right road within seconds of the restart but – inspired by the wonderful Gearoid McKiernan – Cavan kept coming back, onto Meath’s coat tails, if not to Ballyjamesduff!
Even an expertly converted spot kick from Morris couldn’t get Robbie Brennan’s beyond arm’s length of their obdurate opponents. With the result that, after a flurry of scores from Arvagh’s Ciaran Brady, Gerard Smith, Oisin O’Reilly and McKiernan had got the blue and white back to parity before the introduced Caoimhan McGovern appeared to have given the home team a victory their tenacity would have warranted.
But, to slightly alter what the nauseating Take That once sang about. It only takes a minute, lads. Thus, where one couldn’t have blamed the Royals if they had been too shellshocked to react in a useful way, the footballing maturity of this Meath group was again seen in all its glory when needed most.
As firstly Sean Brennan got a brilliantly judged kickout away, which in turn was pulled down by Jack Flynn – a ball he had no right to win – before a triangle of passes involving the midfielder, Jack O’Connor and James Conlon culminated in Ratoath’s No. 9 driving over a whopper of a score with less than a minute left.
In the 68th minute, I’d have taken your hand off for it. But these lads have some of the generational DNA which has sustained our county since God was a gasun. So, even with the euphoria of Flynn firing over the lead score, the green troops were switched on enough to turn over the Cavan kickout and string a necklace of passes, at the end of the which Morris put the seal on the insurance policy!
Scorers – J. Morris (1-4), R. Kinsella (1-2), J. Conlon (0-3), J. Flynn and M. Costello (0-2 each), S. Coffey, C. Caulfield, C. Duke and E. Frayne (0-1 each).
MEATH – S. Brennan; S. Lavin, S. Rafferty, B. O’Halloran; D. Keogan, S. Coffey, C. Caulfield; C. McBride, J. Flynn; C. Duke, R. Kinsella, M. Costello; J. Morris, B. Menton, E. Frayne.
SUBS – J. Conlon for Duke, J. Scully for Frayne, J. O’Connor for Costello, A. O’Neill for McBride, O. Martin for Kinsella.
Referee – Kieran Eanetta (Tyrone)