Royals and Blues book home date
MEATH and Cavan will both play home Tailteann Cup quarter-finals after they picked up wins in very different styles yesterday.
Injury time scores from substitutes Daithi Mcgowan and Donal Lenihan paved the way for Colm O’rourke’s men to pip Down by 1-11 to 1-9, while Cavan had a much simpler outing, stuffing Offaly 2-25 to 2-9 win.
Laois secured their progression to a preliminary round quarter-final despite being pushed to the wire in a draw against Laois, and Tipperary edged out Waterford by 0-17 to 1-13.
Odhran Murdock’s 44th minute goal moved Down in front of Meath, who took themselves goaled after 11 minutes through a Jordan Morris penalty. However 10 second-half wides proved costly for Conor Laverty’s side.
A tally of 2-2 from Brandon Boylan (left) put him on top of a list of 12 scorers from play for Cavan against Offaly. Faithful veteran Anton Sullivan rifled home from close range to give the Leinster side an early lead. However, Cavan simply had too much class as they hit 1-11 in the first half.
Although Offaly cut the gap to five, red cards to Dylan Hyland and Jack Mcevoy ended their challenge.
Former League of Ireland goalkeeper Niall Corbett helped save Laois’ season as they avoided a shock defeat to London. He fisted over in the 74th minute to ensure a 1-17 to 2-14 result in Parnell Park.
Paul Kingston fired three early points as Laois led London by 0-11 to 0-5 at half time in Parnell Park, but things changed dramatically when Henry Walsh goaled for London.
Mark Timmons responded with a fisted goal for Laois but London were dogged, as Enda Lynn’s 59th minute penalty set up a late burst of 1-4, all before Corbet’s late heroics.
Finally, Tipperary held on to secure their third victory of the year, all against the same opponents, as they defeated Waterford 0-17 to 1-13. Barring a Longford win of 21 points or more over Carlow this afternoon however, that spells the end of the season for both those teams.