Meath get a taste of their own medicine

in the additional 20 minutes to eke out the win.

It left the Meath men wondering where it all went wrong, and facing into a clash against Laois who also lost in extra time to Louth, in the losers section.

After the game Meath boss Colm Coyle promised that his side would still have a big say in what happens in Leinster and indeed the All-Ireland series, but praised Dublin for their impressive fightback.

‘It is hard to come to Parnell Park at any time, so I suppose the disappointment is that we had it in our hands and we let it slip, but at least we have the back door,’ Coyle said afterwards.

‘At half-time we were 10 points up and playing absolutely brilliant football. Dublin came out with greater intensity in the tackle in the second half and we made basic errors.

‘It is hard to explain these things. Did we drop intensity or whatever? Dublin certainly upped their intensity and once they got their tails up they were difficult to stop.

‘We made a few mistakes in the last five minutes that let them back into it. We were five up with five minutes to go and I was confident we would hang on, but a couple of errors at the back let them straight up the middle and bang - back of the net.

‘I wouldn’t put it down to complacency. This is a great bunch of lads and I don’t believe we dropped our intensity. Dublin increased theirs, they were crisp in the tackle and they hunted in packs, threw the kitchen sink at us.

The game was 70 minutes old before Dublin took the lead for the first time when St Maur’s Ciaran Archer converted a free at the end of the opening period of extra time.

Up until then Dublin were mostly chasing the game after Meath started with points from Paddy Conway and Sean Martin. Dublin went close to finding the net early on and Ross McGarry was unfortunate to see his effort rebound off the butt of a post.

The excellent James Doran got them off the mark on seven minutes following a great forage through the middle by centre back Neil Matthews.

Shane Walsh and Jordan Morris were excellent in the Meath full forward line as the Royals built up a 0-5 to 0-2 lead by the 16th minute. Then, when Conor Frayne gained possession there didn’t seemed to be much danger, but the Summerhill man managed to work himself into a scoring position before unleashing a great effort to the net.

Donal Ryan responded with a point for the home side and Archer was denied by a great block by Meath keeper Andrew Beakey of the St Colmcille’s club.

From there to half-time Meath dominated, with Dublin wayward with their finishing. Morris (two), Walsh, Frayne and wing back Adam Murphy added to the Meath tally to leave them comfortable at the break.

Dublin needed to start the second half brightly if they were to get into contention and that is exactly what they did - with points from the impressive Archer (two), and Doran. Beakey was forced to make another smart save as Dublin piled on the pressure, but they were still seven points in arrears entering the last quarter.

Archer punished a Meath mistake with another point and the deficit was down to four before Shane Walsh hit Meath’s only point of the second half on 54 minutes.

There was a little over five minutes remaining when Doran broke through the heart of the Meath defence before producing a fine finish to the net to leave just two points between the sides.

Meath were unable to break the Dubs’ momentum and Doran added another point before Mark Tracey hit the equaliser in added time to leave it 1-11 each and send the game to extra time.

Corner back Robbie Clarke was red-carded at the end of normal time, but Meath were able to revert back to a full quota of players for extra time.

The only contribution Meath made to the scoring in the additional 20 minutes was two pointed frees from Walsh. Conor Frayne did have the ball in the Dublin net, but referee Padraig Maguire had already blown for a free.

Leading 1-14 to 1-13 as the sides changed ends for the final time, Dublin comfortable repelled all that Meath were able to throw at them and Archer clinched victory with the only point in the second half of extra time.

Meath did have legitimate claims for a penalty in that second period, but they were waved away.