Meath minors soundly beaten by Kildare on sobering night for the county

A sobering night for Meath football as the county minors were handed a lesson in this opening round Leinster FC tie at Stamullen on Tuesday.

The gulf in class was frightening as Kildare imposed themselves on proceedings from the opening whistle and were superior in all facets of the game throughout. The visitors’ pace, creativity, the way they controlled the game, and their ability to kick scores from distance was admirable. Overall, it was a very disappointing showing from Meath who didn’t seem to have any structure to their game throughout the hour and were a distant second best in most areas of the pitch.

The defeat leaves manager Joe Cowley and his selectors facing a mammoth task ahead of the local derby against Louth in Hunterstown this Wednesday evening.

It wasn’t that Meath didn’t make a promising start to proceedings, Evan Kelly had the ball in the Kildare net after three minutes in response to the opening point from Tadhg Donlon. They led again on five minutes when Jack Doyle kicked a fine score but Meath found themselves pinned deep in their own territory for most of the half and Kildare showed their class as they kicked some wonderful scores and were ahead by 1-8 to 1-4 at half-time.

Thomas Sheridan and Cillian Yore tried hard to stem the tide while further afield, Pat Crawley was the only Meath forward that looked capable of troubling the Kildare rearguard and made the most of the limited possession that came his way.

Harry Donnelly, who kicked some outstanding scores from play and frees, Ruaidhrí Lawlor, Mick O’Toole and Ronan Kelly caused Meath endless problems and by half-time, the half-back line had contributed 1-4 to the Kildare tally.

The Lilywhites had three of the team that defeated Meath in last year’s semi-final and were well in control of proceedings when Mick O’Toole booted first time to the net after a Donnelly shot had rebounded off an upright to leave them leading by 1-3 to 1-1 after nine minutes.

Crawley, first from a free and then play, responded to Kildare scores with points to keep the deficit to two by the end of the opening quarter. However, Kildare were finding scores much more easily to come by and they added three further points before Crawley converted another free close to half-time, leaving four between the sides at the break and Meath with an uphill battle in the second half.

Meath had the better of the exchanges in the early part of the second half but all they had to show for their efforts were four wides and Kildare were first off the mark through midfielder Evan Boyle.

Doyle hit his second point on 39 minutes but Meath’s challenge fizzled out the longer the half progressed and their only other score came courtesy of another free from Crawley.

Kildare turned on the style with some class scores and Donnelly was the standout player and finished with a tally of six points before being withdrawn late on.

Meath have plenty of time to turn their fortunes around, starting against Louth, but the initial signs don’t look promising.

Meath: Cian Murphy (St Patrick’s); Cillian Yore (St Ultan’s), Seán McLoughlin (Dunderry), Thomas Sheridan (Oldcastle); Cian Tobin (Dunboyne), Conor Black (St Patrick’s), Eoin McCrudden (Dunboyne); Cathal Barron (Dunderry), Evan Demange (Drumbaragh); Eoin Feldman (Ratoath), Jack Doyle (Dunboyne) 0-2, Cormac Nugent (O’Mahony’s); Evan Kelly (Donaghmore/Ashbourne) 1-0, Ciarán Sheridan (Dunderry), Pat Crawley (Oldcastle) 0-4 (3f). Subs: Charles McCarthy (Seneschalstown) for Demange (37), Cormac Smith (Clann na nGael) for Feldman (47), Patrick Yourell (O’Mahony’s) for Nugent (50), Adam Ducie (Ratoath) for Doyle (55), Andrew Brien (St Mary’s) for Kelly (58).

Kildare: Conor McDonnell; Rian Beagan, Liam McDonald; Matthew O’Connor; Mick O’Toole 1-1, Ruaidhrí Lawlor 0-2, Cian McKevitt 0-1; Evan Boyle 0-1, Finn Dowling; Paddy Ryan 0-2, Ronan Kelly 0-1, Liam Kenny; Harry Donnelly 0-6 (3f), Luke Murray 0-1, Tadhg Donlon 0-1. Subs: Dylan O’Dwyer for Murray (44), Austin Donegan 0-1 for Donlon (49), Brian Caffrey 0-1 for McKevitt (55), Adam Poole for Donnelly (57), Seán McGinn for O’Toole (60).

Referee: Niall Ward (Westmeath).

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