Meath grab a goal at the death to take vital point home from Offaly clash

TIME will tell if a point yesterday afternoon will be a step towards salvation in the battle to avoid the drop for Offaly and Meath.

However, the Royals will be the happier team to have come away with half of the spoils from this O’Connor Park clash.

Joey Wallace’s controversial equalising goal for Meath in the fifth minute of stoppage time added a dramatic conclusion to a contest high on drama but low in quality, for the most part.

Not unlike Meath’s last outing against Down a week ago, a strong wind looked like it could have been a huge factor but neither team could make it count.

It was Offaly who had the use of it first, and while they conceded the first score to a Shane Walsh free, Jack Bryant’s response floated over the bar from 40 metres out and they looked like they could build a big lead.

Mark Abbott and Dylan Hyland kicked points to give them a 0-6 to 0-5 interval lead, and it could have been much worse for the Faithful but for two goal-line stops to deny Meath’s Matthew Costello and Thomas O’Reilly.

Offaly got a lifeline when a trip from Jack O’Connor on a defender, at the death of the first half, earned him a black card and Offaly took advantage to add the first points of the second half.

An inspirational score from

Donal Keogan after 46 minutes, fired up Meath’s comeback and they levelled through Jason Scully.

With pressure from Meath putting Offaly on the rack, the Faithful produced their best move of the game for Niall McNamee to slip the ball to the net from close range, and thanks to incredible saves from Paddy Dunican, that lead was preserved right up until the fifth minute of added time.