Crunch time in league
LAST weekend’s blanket postponement of intercounty games has again put the O’Byrne Cup Final meeting of Meath and Westmeath on the back burner and it’s down to the much more important business of league action for the next three weekends.
While promotion is still a possibility in the Allianz Football League, recent displays would suggest that Meath are in a battle to retain their Division 2 status - starting this Sunday when they entertain Cork.
At present, afterfter four rounds the Royals occupyupy one of those relegation ation spots on three ree points, ahead ad of neighbours s Louth who have yet to break their duck. However three counties - Clare, , Cork and Down - are only a single gle point better off than Andy McEntee’se’s men and it is likely thathat the promotion promoin and relegation race will not be decided until the final round of matches on Sunday March 25th.
It is in Meath’s favour that they have already defeated Clare if it comes down to a head to head, while that win over the Banner County has left the Royals with a much better scoring difference than either Clare or Louth.
A five-point defeat against Cavan was followed by an eight-point loss to Tipperary in Meath’s most recent outings. Those two games were away fixtures and it might give the Meath men a glimmer of home that two of their remaining fixtures - against Cork and Down - are home ones, while the other sees them make the relatively short journey to take on Louth.
The common denominator in those two recent defeats was that Meath were abysmal in both games, and with the brand of football they are currently playing it is difficult to envisage a vast improvement for the remainder of the campaign.
Meath have problems in a number of areas of the pitch, but especially in attack where their style of play makes it relatively easy for opponents to close them down and hit them on the counter-attack.
Too many of the Meath forwards have shown too few flashes of what they are capable of, and evenin the victory overove what was a mediocre Clare outfit they found fo it particularly ticular difficult to make mak openings for scores in the first firs half.
The void left by the retirement me of Paddy dy O’Rourke (picturedpic left) has aalso caused headaches headac and it has been a big ask of Andy Colgan to taketa over after missing out on football for the previous 12 months due to travel commitments.
The full back line has probably been Meath’s strongest sector so far, but it has been left horribly exposed at times by those in front of it.
Next Sunday’s opponents Cork have defeated Louth and Down and lost to Cavan and Tipperary.
When the counties clashed in last year’s campaign they shared the points after the Leesiders led by nine on two occasions. Meath produced a commendable revival that day to lead entering the closing stages, but they allowed Cork regain the initiative and had to depend on a late Donal Lenihan point to share the spoils.
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