Curraha fancied to make the last eight

THE race for the Meath SFC is down to the knockout stages and the first of those matches, the Curraha v Donaghmore/Ashbourne preliminary quarter-final, is scheduled for decision this week.

The game was provisionally pencilled in for this evening (Tuesday) but has now been put back to the weekend after Ratoath, who have a number of Curraha players in their ranks, were knocked out of the SHC.

The Ashbourne men would have been hot favourites a few short weeks ago, but since winning their first ever match in the group stages against Simonstown, Curraha have upped the tempo significantly.

They blitzed Wolfe Tones in Round 4 with a tally of 1-19, and bettered that when annihilating St Colmcille’s 2-21 to 1-11 to book their place in the knockouts.

Donaghmore/Ashbourne surprised last year’s finalists Summerhill in Round 1 but then produced very poor fare when going down to Ratoath in their next outing. They recorded big wins over Rathkenny and Longwood before scraping past Moynalvey to make it through.

On the basis of their last two displays Curraha get the vote to continue their amazing journey.

Even more intriguing than the knockout stages is the fight to avoid the drop and all three relegation matches are provisionally scheduled for the weekend.

The Seneschalstown versus Longwood clash is not expected to go ahead due to the south Meath side’s qualification for the semi-finals of the SHC.

However, the two remaining ties, St Patrick’s versus Wolfe Tones in Donore on Friday evening at 7.45 and Rathkenny versus St Colmcille in Seneschalstown on Sunday at 5pm will likely go ahead as planned.

St Colmcille’s made it to the quarter-finals last year where they gave a great account of themselves against Summerhill.

Rathkenny have diced with relegation on a number of occasions since winning the intermediate crown in 2006, but they also reached the last four of the championship on two occasions.

The Cille’s go into the game favourites to preserve their status but will need to improve significantly on their display against Curraha to overcome this tricky assignment.

Rathkenny won’t go down without a fight but may have run out of lives at this stage.

St Patrick’s are another side who have fought the good battle in previous years and they face an enormous task against Wolfe Tones. Without a win in the championship all year, they produced their best display last time out against Navan O’Mahonys.

Tones won two of their five matches and would look to have much more going for them to overcome this hurdle.