Meath battled past Derry to a 1-24 to 1-20 victory at Celtic Park this evening to put themselves in the draw for Round 3 of the All-Ireland senior football championship.

Donal Keogan’s goal after four minutes had given the visitors the perfect start in this knockout clash, with Jack Flynn adding a two-pointer to the Royals’ tally after James Sargent (‘45’) and Shane McGuigan pulled back points for Derry.

Lachlan Murray and Eoin McEvoy raised white flags that made it a one-point game prior to Bryan Menton’s sailing over from beyond the arc and James Conlon adding a single to make it 1-5 to 0-4 after 17 minutes.

Sargent found the Meath two minutes later and Murray and McGuigan shot points that steered the Oak Leafers into their first lead in the 24th minute.

The next four points – two of them from Conlon – went the way of the Division 2 champions, but the hosts were able to finish out the half strong with scores via McEvoy, Ruairi Forbes and Sargeant to leave it all square on 1-9 apiece when the teams went in at the break.

A fracas which broke out between the teams after Sean Hurson’s half-time whistle sounded that saw the Tyrone official black carding four players before the start of the second-half, with Derry’s Gareth McKinless and Conor Doherty and Cian McBride and Ronan Ryan of Meath the players to see black as both sides resumed with 13 men.

McEvoy fired Derry in front with a point shortly after the restart, but Meath came into a dominant spell afterwards and a brace of points each from Jordan Morris and Conlon had them motoring before Matthew Costello’s point put five between the teams.

Murray nailed a sorely needed two-pointer to stem the tide for the home side, with Eoghan Frayne (free) and Conall Higgins trading points, but the next two scores went the way of Robbie Brennan’s men as veteran Keogan saw his point backed up by Conlon’s seventh of the evening.

A McGuigan free left a goal in it coming down the home stretch where substitute Killian Smyth came up with the insurance point much to the delight of the visiting contingent who now see their team progress to the third round on Monday morning, while Derry bow out of the championship.

Tweet

Most Read Stories