Defeat and below-par performance a big blow to disappointed McEntee
ALTHOUGH HE is only heading into his second year in the hot seat, Meath boss Andy McEntee had been down this road before.
At pains to explain yet another inept and disappointing display from his charges, especially when the stakes are that little bit higher.
‘Disappointing in a lot of aspects, disappointing display and disappointing outcome,’ was McEntee’s initial reaction afterwards.
‘Nothing changes following this defeat, though. It is always going to be tough to get out of this division. We didn’t perform, it was a below-par display, we have a big game next Saturday down in Thurles and we cannot be sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to get ready for it,’ McEntee continued.
‘There was a bit of a breeze out there in the opening half, Cavan missed very little, we missed quite a bit. A lot of our option-taking wasn’t the best in attack and unfortunately we paid the price.’ McEntee pointed out that his side had a plentiful supply of possession, especially throughout the opening half, but they failed to make best use of it.
‘We left ourselves a little bit exposed at the back and we didn’t work hard enough to prevent Cavan from coming out with the ball and that left our full back line very exposed.
‘The second goal was a killer. I thought we started the second half brightly enough, but the second goal made it very difficult.’
Following this setback Meath have left themselves little margin for error in their remaining four games, but McEntee insisted that promotion is still very much up for grabs.
‘Every game was always going to be crucial, nothing changes. We have got to win every game and even then you still don’t know. There is pressure in every game, you have got to perform and if you don’t perform you get beaten.’ Division 1 DONAGHMORE/ASH ST COLMCILLE’S 3-7 0-10
NEWLY-PROMOTED St Colmcille’s made a losing start in Division 1 of their B League campaign.
Ciaran Kelly hit half of the Cille’s tally in the opening half, at the end of which Ashbourne were ahead 1-5 to 0-6.
Another Kelly point reduced the deficit to the minimum on the restart, but the eventual winners stretched out their lead again with a goal and a point.
Successive points from Kelly, Eoin Woods and Sean Collier closed the gap again, but Ashbourne had more left in the tank in the closing stages and finished with another goal and a point.
ST COLMCILLE’S: Lee McGuinness; Fearghal Walsh, Ian Mullen, Lee Browne; Stephen Emmett, Eoin Woods 0-2, Aaron Brady; Ruairi O’Grady, Sean Collier 0-2; Eanna Walsh 0-1, Eoin O’Neill, Con Gordon; Darragh Brodigan, Donal Meagher, Ciaran Kelly 0-5. Subs: Darragh Kelly for Gordon, Joe O’Toole for Brady, Stephen O’Neill for E O’Neill, Daniel Campbell for Browne, Lorcan Hughes for Emmett.
Div 4
SYDDAN 2-13 SENESCHALSTOWN 1-13
A BRACE of goals from Darren Smith in the first half boosted Syddan to a winning start to their B League Division 4 campaign last Saturday.
Smith struck for his opening goal on 20 minutes and soon afterwards hit a second to put his side ahead for the first time.
Seneschalstown, who earlier led 0-6 to 0-1, responded with a goal of their own on the stroke of half-time to lead 1-7 to 2-3 at the break.
Ben Blakemore, from a free, had the sides level within two minutes of the restart and then Robbie Farrelly pointed his side ahead. However, Seneschalstown regained the initiative with three successive points before Syddan responded with four scores on the spin.
With less than five minutes remaining Seneschalstown were still ahead, but Syddan finished strongly with unanswered points from Anthony Smith, Cathal Dardis, Blakemore and Michael Smith. SYDDAN: Peter Sheehy 0-1; Michael Clare, Ben Bashford, Richard Connell; Stephen Tallon, Paddy Rafferty, Dylan Smyth; Cathal Dardis 0-1f, Robbie Farrelly 0-3; Michael Sweeney, Michael Smith 0-3, Eoin Lynch Duff; Ben Blakemore 0-3 (2f), Darren Smith 2-1, Kevin Carry. Subs: Paddy Meade for Carry, Thomas Meade for Rafferty, Anthony Smith 0-1.
Div 6 DRUMCONRATH ST VINCENT’S
A FINE third quarter which yielded a goal and three points helped Drumconrath secure the points at home to the Ardcath men.
The sides finished level at the break, 0-5 each. Quick-fire points from Daniel Byrne, Daniel Myles and Patrick Farrelly pushed the hosts three clear at the change of ends and they strengthened their grip on proceedings with a goal from Farrelly on 43 minutes.
Drumconrath were reduced to 14 in that second half and their lead was threatened at one stage before Byrne knocked over the insurance point. DRUMCONRATH: Eoin Muldoon; David O’Halloran, Peter Tighe, Cathal McEvoy; Robert McEntaggart, Cathal Dunne, Jamie Myles; Chris Tighe, Stephen Crosby 0-2; Patrick Farrelly 1-2, Tomás Conlon, Daniel Byrne 0-4; Graham Tighe, Alan Dunne, Daniel Myles 0-1. Subs Dylan Dardis for A Dunne, Leighton Irwin for Myles.