ROYALS LORD IT
Reilly is king as Meath kill off Louth
NEW Meath manager Andy McEntee is confident that the Royals have rediscovered their old ability to finish games positively and kill off teams.
The Royals outscored underdogs Louth by 0-14 to 1-0 in the last 20 minutes or so, setting up a Leinster semi-final clash with Kildare and drawing the mind back to the days when Meath teams typically finished with a flourish.
It was a dramatic afternoon with all the tension and excitement you’d expect from a MeathLouth north-eastern derby.
Meath, firstly, were informed they’d already used up a substitution when James Toher came in just before throw-in after an injury to James McEntee in the warm-up.
The game itself was a free flowing, end-to-end affair, laced with goal scoring chances — none of which Meath were able to take.
The craziest moment of all arrived in the 39th minute when Louth scored one of the strangest Championship goals you’re ever likely to see.
Meath keeper, Paddy O’Rourke, momentarily went AWOL after his short kick-out was intercepted by Louth sub, Ronan Holcroft, who kicked back towards goal.
O’Rourke seemed to lose his bearings and think the ball was going wide only to turn his back on it as it trickled into the net.
That helped Louth to lead by two with 22 minutes left and they dreamed of a first Championship win over Meath since 1975.
But unlike previous seasons when Meath finished poorly in big games, blowing several huge leads, the Royals responded with 14 of the game’s last 15 scores to win at their leisure.
‘The thing that we’re trying to convince fellas of is that in the last 10 minutes of games we’re okay, we can win games in the last 10, and that proved to be the case today,’ said McEntee. ‘We looked strong in a lot of areas in the last 10 minutes and that was great to see.’
McEntee admitted, however, there was a lot of relief at the final whistle.
‘It’s just pure relief after all that,’ said McEntee. ‘I’d hate to have my first Championship match as Meath manager and lose it. I put my hand up for the job and these are the games you want to be playing in. So it’s nice to get across the line because you just never know what’s going to happen in these games.’
Meath led 0-10 to 1-6 at halftime but fell behind after coughing up that bizarre Holcroft goal.
‘I think Paddy thought it was going wide. I think he also thought the goals were to his left — and they were actually to his right. He just lost his bearings.’
Newcomer Ronan Jones held his own for Meath at midfield and scored a second-half point.
There were cameos from subs Thomas Reilly, Ruairi Ó Coileáin and Sean Tobin who all made the score-sheet.
Toher has a strong debut too, kicking five points including three frees, though Graham Reilly was the man that made Meath tick.
He was excellent throughout, scoring seven points and laying on passes for Thomas Reilly and Toher to score from.
It was this sort of leadership that McEntee demanded of the experienced St Colmcille’s man when he threw him the captain’s armband last winter.
‘Graham was outstanding,’ said McEntee. ‘Once he’s in the proper condition he’s a handful for anybody.’
Donal Keogan, Cillian O’Sullivan and Graham Reilly all had firsthalf goal chances for Meath but wasted them.
They were punished when Jim McEneaney drilled home a 29th-minute penalty for Louth to leave just one in it at the break.
Louth restarted better and grabbed that goal from Holcroft along with three points from sub James Califf to lead by two.
They were 2-9 to 0-13 up with 48 minutes on the clock but that’s when Meath finally hit top gear and shut down the game.