SF Tournament: O'Dowd's Royals open with Breffni win
December 02, 2012
Cavan's Mark McKeever and Meath's Brian Meade in a fight for possession during the Fitzsimons Cup game at Grangegodden
Cavan 0-10
Mick O'Dowd got his term as Meath senior football manager off to a winning start when his experimental side defeated neighbours Cavan in the second semi final of the Fitzsimons Cup at Grangegodden. The tournament is hosted by the Gaeil Colmcille club. His Cavan counterpart Terry Hyland also gave starts to many new names.
Cavan settled the quickest and where two points up, through Niall McDermott and Thomas Corr after ten minutes. Meath got back on level terms with scores from Michael Newman and a Cian ward free. Corr and Kevin Tierney put Cavan ahead again only for Cormac Rowe and Ward again to level matters once more. The Breffni men finished out the half with a brace of points from McDermott. Sean Tobin came on for the injured Ward and he kicked a fine point to leave his team one in arrears at the break, Cavan 0-6 Meath 0-5.
Meath went ahead for the first time in the game with two fine efforts from full foward Michael Newman five minutes into the second half. Eugene Keating came off the bench and he had matters all square again. Half backs Ciaran Lenehan (Meath) and Padraic O'Reilly (Cavan) traded points before the Royals opened up a two point gap with fine efforts from Lenehan and Sean Tobin. Keating narrowed the gap with his second score before Brain Sheridan got in for the games only goal and set Meath up for the win with five minutes remaining.
Meath will now play Offaly, who defeated Louth yesterday in the final while Cavan will take on the Wee County in the shield decider. Both games will be played in Grangegodden next Sunday.
Meath scorers: Michael Newman 0-3, Brian Sheridan 1-0, Cian Ward, Sean Tobin and Ciaran Lenehan 0-2 each, Cormac Rowe 0-1.
Cavan scorers: Niall McDermott 0-3, Eugene Keating and Thomas Corr 0-2 each, Padraic O'Reilly, Cian Mackey and Kevin Meehan 0-1 each.
Meath: Paddy O'Rourke, Caolan Young, Donal Keogan, Davy Dalton, Cormac Rowe, Darren O'Hagan, Ciaran Lenehan, Conor Gillespie, Brian Meade, Stephan Crosby, Damien Carroll, Daragh McNamara, Cian Ward, Michael Newman, Brian Sheridan. Subs: Sean Tobin and Eoin Harrington
Cavan: Alan O'Meara, Josh Hayes, Patrick Carroll, Kevin Tierney, Padraic O'Reilly, James McEnroe, Damien Reilly, Gearoid McKiernan, Thomas Corr, Cian Mackey, Martin Reilly, Mark McKeever, Kevin Meehan, Dean Hyland, Niall McDermott. Sub: Eugene Keating Tweet
