Meath 5-9
Dublin 0-13

Meath stunned Dublin this evening with an awesome second-half performance at Croke Park to book their place into the final of the Leinster Senior Football Championship.

After the sides had been deadlocked in the first-half, Meath raised their game from the restart onwards and dethroned the champions with goals from Cian Ward, Stephen Bray, Joe Sheridan and Brian Farrell.

Dublin had been on top around the centre during the first-half but couldn't create as Meath did in the second and were undone by a lethal forward line that were inspired by Ward, Shane O'Rourke and 'Man of the Match' Bray, who scored 2-1 from play.

The opener in this game came just over a minute in via a Conal Keaney free, which Ward couldn't equalise after the next attack saw Meath labour for a free 45 metres from goal.

After being penalised for an open-hand pass, Shane O'Rourke - the target man for the Royals at full-forward - got the better of Rory O'Carroll to slip over his first point on five minutes.

A trademark '45' from Tomas Quinn put the Dubs back in front and they doubled their lead in the eighth minute when Brian Cullen was afforded space in behind Meath's defence to fist over.

Two minutes later Meath hit back with a hammer blow as a lapse from Barry Cahill set Stephen Bray loose down the left flank and the corner-forward made up 40 metres and flashed a brilliant shot past Stephen Cluxton's near post.

Down the other end Bernard Brogan sailed over a beauty off his left boot to equalise and it was clear that we had a championship game on our hands.

O'Rourke curled over in similar fashion in the next attack to nudge Meath back in front, but Dublin rattled off three unanswered scores through Quinn (2) and the lively Bernard Brogan to establish a two-point advantage by the 18th minute.

Along with O'Rourke, Bray continued to be a real thorn in Dublin's side as he latched on to a pass from Joe Sheridan to halve his side's deficit to the minimum.

A Ward free levelled the sides for the fourth time and despite kicking two more wides to bring their tally to six Meath regained the lead when Ward was allowed to run into space and boot over his first from play.

Dublin ended a 16-minute scoring drought after that through a Quinn free 25 metres out, which squared the sides again and closed the half at 0-8 to 1-5.

Neither team made changes at the interval and it took a minute for Meath to rediscover their scoring touch with Ward setting up O'Rourke for the Navan O'Mahonys man's third point.

Quinn levelled when called upon from a free, but Meath hit another gear with Ward setting them alight in the 41st minute after a brilliantly finished goal which badly exposed Dublin's full-back line.

The Wolfe Tones clubman landed a free from no less than 55 metres two minutes later, which the reliable Quinn cancelled-out from a close range placed ball.
Pat Gilroy introduced Eoghan O'Gara to the fray shortly afterwards and he very nearly set-up a goal when he threaded Paul Flynn through and the wing forward crashed his shot off the inside of the post.

Turning point? You bet so.

In Meath's next attack a scorching run from Graham Reilly ripped a hole in the Dublin defence and gave space to Bray to round Cluxton and lash in his second major and four minutes later Joe Sheridan, who had been unusually quite throughout, capitalised on a mistake from O'Carroll to send the ball past Cluxton for a fourth time.

Dublin still had time to pull off a remarkable comeback, but it wasn't going to happen with the form that the Meath backs possessed in this clash as they battled like demons in the second 35 minutes.

Ward trademarked again by nailing a 60-metre free to stretch Eamonn O'Brien's team's advantage to nine, as the winners had out-scored their opponents by 3-2 to 0-1 at this stage.

Graham Reilly and Bernard Brogan (free) swapped points to maintain that difference before Kevin McManamon broke the capital men's drought with regards to scores from play in the 65th minute.

Meath were by no means finished though and goal number five arrived with three minutes to go when Brian Farrell - a replacement for Anthony Moyles - latched onto possession and rolled a cool finish into the right corner.

Dublin hunted for a goal towards the end to try and take some blemish off the score-line but Alan Brogan was denied by a parry from Brendan Murphy as Meath held onto their clean sheet and place in this year's Leinster SFC final.

Meath: B Murphy; C O'Connor, K Reilly, E Harrington; A Moyles, G O'Brien, C King; B Meade, M Ward; S Kenny, J Sheridan (1-0), G Reilly (0-1); C Ward (1-4, 3f), S O'Rourke (0-3), S Bray (2-1). Subs: N Crawford for M Ward (47), C Gillespie for B Meade (56), J Queeney for C King (64), B Farrell (1-0) for A Moyles (66)

Dublin: S Cluxton; M Fitzsimons, R O'Carroll, P McMahon; G Brennan, B Cullen (0-1), B Cahill; E Fennell, R McConnell; P Flynn, A Brogan, N Corkery; C Keaney (0-1, 1f), B Brogan (0-3, 1f), T Quinn (0-7, 5f, 1 '45). Subs: E O'Gara for C Keaney (44), MD MacCauley for R McConnell (49), K Nolan for P McMahon (55), K McManamon (0-1) for T Quinn (60), D Henry for m N Corkery (62). Tweet

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