MEATH… 4-15
CARLOW… 1-12
Having backed the footballers to beat Derry at 2/1 early last week, the only regret was there were no odds available on (a) the camogie team doing likewise against Carlow or (b) the double. Now read on…
In so many ways, the scenarios facing both sides were the same. At an away venue for a win-or-bust encounter. Completely written off by everybody bar themselves.
Thankfully, DNA doesn’t differentiate between male and female once the green and gold jersey goes on. Thus, Stephen Shiel’s side got away to an encouraging start with rapid fire points from Aoife Carey and Emma Regan. Then, Ellen Burke and Carey combined brilliantly to put Ella O’Brien in and the corner forward rattled the home side’s net.
When Regan buried the first of her brace of ‘majors’ and shortly thereafter Abbye Donnelly hit three points on the spin, that left the scoreboard reading 2-04 to 0-01 in favour of the visitors and you could be forgiven for thinking the Royals were well in control of matters.
However, whatever about battling qualities being intrinsically woven into the Meath DNA, doing things the easy way is certainly not part of this particular bunch’s make up. Hence there was almost an inevitability about the Barrowsiders coming roaring back into the contest.
Which they duly did with the aid of a Leah Ryan goal and a slew of of points from Eleanor Treacy and Abhainn Coady. All of which got the red, yellow and green back to parity before late white flags from Carey and Roisin Heaney gave Shiel’s troops a 2-06 to 1-07 interval advantage.
Now, as Donal Keogan and Bryan Menton were to go on and prove later in the evening, to get anywhere in an All Ireland Championship you need a bit of class and experience. And, when na cailini leis na gcaman needed similar, it was then the return of Aoife Minogue proved worth its weight in gold.
The Dunderry lady – a talented dual star who spent the last few years at the bottom end of the world – proved a constant threat with her direct running and ability to bring others into play.
Coady did reduce the deficit immediately on the restart, but then Dunboyne’s Burke, Regan and the introduced Erin Leddy strung together a great move which allowed Heaney to point and low down a marker. Thereafter, those who had the most to do to save their season set about doing exactly that as Leah Devine burst forward to put Regan in for her second green flag of the afternoon.
Substitute Ciara Foley then unleashed an absolute bullet in the direction of the Carlow goal and – although thwarted on that initial occasion – the home team failed to heed the warning and when offered a second Exocet missile, Foley made no mistake and tagged on the extra three points they required to ensure advancement.
SCORERS – E. Regan (2-2), A. Donnelly (0-5), E. O’Brien and C. Foley (1-0 each), A. Carey and R. Heaney (0-3 each), L. Devine and E. Burke (0-1 each).
MEATH – M. Randle; S. Payne, M. Clince, R. Moran; R. O’Neill, L. Devine, B. Hughes; O. O’Halloran, A. Minogue; A. Carey, A. Donnelly, R. Heaney; E. Regan, E. Burke, E. O’Brien.
SUBS – E. Leddy for Hughes, C. Foley for Heaney.
Referee: Philip McDonald (Cavan).