McEntee must come up with a case for defence ahead of Kildare showdown
CAN anyone remember Meath accumulating 27 scores during the heady days of the late 1980s with a full forward line of Colm O’Rourke, Brian Stafford and Bernard Flynn?
You could also throw speedster David Beggy and PJ Gillic into the mix, while Liam Hayes would also guarantee you a couple of scores galloping through from midfield.
Sunday’s scoring spree surpassed anything a Meath team has achieved in the championship in recent years, though they did manage 2-21 in the 2012 quarter-final against Carlow and 7-13 in the facile 2014 victory over the same opposition.
One had to be impressive with the scoring rate against the Wee County, but clinical Meath? I don’t think so.
With all due respect to Colin Kelly’s charges, this game should have been over as a contest at half-time. Despite playing against the stiff breeze throughout the opening half, the Royals enjoyed the edge at the break, ahead 0-10 to 1-6.
The lack of a killer instinct ensured that Louth were still in contention with a little less than 15 minutes remaining. However, to Meath’s credit their finishing burst was really impressive as they replied to Conal McKeever’s goal on 57 minutes with seven unanswered points.
That was one of the real positives from a Meath viewpoint ahead of the semi-final clash with Kildare on Saturday week. Most games are won in the final 10 to 15 minutes and Meath really came up trumps in that period, something they haven’t been able to do in similar situations in recent years.
However, there will be concerns regarding the wellbeing of the Meath rearguard going in against a much more potent force when they take on the Lillywhites attack. Then there is the question that was on a lot of supporters’ lips leaving the ground - how many chances do Meath need to score a goal?
Credit Louth stopper Craig Lynch for keeping out Donal Keogan’s goal effort on four minutes, but at least the centre back hit the target - something Cillian O’Sullivan was unable to do when presented with an opportunity on 12 minutes. His effort blazed across the front of goal and went wide.
Meath created another goal chance on 27 minutes and the lively Bryan McMahon was unfortunate to see his effort crash off the crossbar.
Then in opening-half added time another goal chance presented itself, but instead of going it alone Graham Reilly decided to offload to Donal Lenihan, the pass was wayward and the opportunity disappeared.
The best goal chance of the second half for the Royals fell to Ronan Jones, but the midfielder slipped as he was about to pull the trigger and when he recovered his balance keeper Lynch proved equal to his effort.
Louth too failed to take a number of the goal chances they created, the most clearcut probably falling to Paraic Smith, but he was denied by a magnificent save by Paddy O’Rourke.
However, the three they scored were all of the soft variety. The penalty decision was probably a bit harsh, while the second goal from Ronan Holcroft was bizarre to say the least. Keeper Paddy O’Rourke found himself in no man’s land following a mis-directed kick-out, resulting in Louth grabbing the lead for the first time since the opening minute.
There was also an element of careless defending in the lead up to Conal McKeever’s goal, leaving manager Andy McEntee with plenty of food for thought before the semi-final.
Louth, to their credit, battled hard for as long as they could, but they didn’t have a Graham Reilly, a Donal Keogan or a Donal Lenihan and that ultimately cost them. Meath won because they had classier players throughout the pitch.
That will hardly be the case when they take on Kildare and if they fail to shore up their defence and demonstrate a much meaner streak when goal chances present themselves, then this win against Louth will be nothing more than a mere statistic in the record books.