Meath V Louth

andrewie

What a second half performance from Meath. They were losing 10 points to 4 at half time and came out and stopped Louth scoring in the second half. It finished 1-15 to 10 points. Graham Geraghty played well as did Joe Sheridan who scored the goal.

Paul Tergat

I think it was actually 10-6 at half time, but a decent second half alright!

mik_da_man

Good stuff from the royals!!

Ruu_Old

If anyone has any linkies or highlights available on the net that would be great, otherwise I'll settle for rte news on rte.ie G'wan the Royal!

padser

Yup i wouldnt mind links as well if anyone has em, thought it was going to be on TV since it was the only 2 PM throw up, but i never checked the hurling.....gutted.

klong

It'll be on the Sunday game highlights show, 2130 RTE 2

Atomic Pineapple

yeh it was 10 - 6 at half time, meath hit 1- 09 in the second while stopping louth from scoring a single point, louth may just give up

slumped

Having been at the match and now admitting to being a Louth man, it was not that Meath overpowered Louth in the second half, more like Louth didn't show up.

Louth were amazing in the first half, knocking over 5 points without reply.

A friend turned to me at half time and said Louth were looking good. My response was typically negative and went along the lines of "It depends on what team Louth send out in the second half"

How true.

Louth's midfield was nowhere to be seen. The keeper kept kicking every goal kick to the left side which Meath kopped onto very quickly.

Louth's only chance fell to Mark Brennan who missed the goal under a challenge from Meath's defence (which wasn't tested in the second half and didn't look great in the first).

Louth's expectations were up given the Div 2 title, but the step up to Div 1 is quite high. We competed for 35 mins, but need to do more to compete for the 70.

The re-building of Louth's senior team will take 3-5 years and the signs are good that things are moving in the right direction. Let's give Louth time.

A good run in the back door matches will stand us good. Fingers crossed for a nice easy draw to wase us back in!

S

cruiserweight

Unfortunately I missed the highlights last night! How do people feel that Meath will do in the game against Wexford?

Waylander

Hard to know CW. In the first half Louth played them off the pitch, and scored some fantastic scores. But the second half Geraghty moved out the pitch and ran the show to very good effect. I think they may have the beating of Wexford, but would not put money on it.

klong

cruiserweight wrote:

Unfortunately I missed the highlights last night! How do people feel that Meath will do in the game against Wexford?

And how do people feel Wexford will do against Meath? Is it just me or are Wexford that bit weaker than they were when they got to the NFL Div. 1 final last year?

cruiserweight

klong wrote:

And how do people feel Wexford will do against Meath? Is it just me or are Wexford that bit weaker than they were when they got to the NFL Div. 1 final last year?

Last year we had a very good start to the league, where as this year we started very slowly and left it to late to get out of trouble! I think that the team is slightly stronger this year, in terms of experience and and personnel, and there has been more of an emphasis on the Championship rather than the league!I think the experience is the big thing, they have learnt a lot (hopefully) from defeats to Westmeath, Dublin, Monaghan and Armagh in recent years, as well as the victory over Tyrone!

I am optimistic (well I am at this stage every year) that we can reach the Leinster final! But a lot will depend on the combinations picked in midfield and the forwards, and in particular I feel where Redmond Barry and Diarmuid Kinsella play!

Also don't forget that the last 5 teams to beat Wexford in the Leinster championship have gone on to win it, and Laois were the only team to beat Wexford be a large amount! And also neither Meath or Kildare beat Wexford in the League this year!

singingstranger

Yeah, I think it'll be a tight game between Meath and Wexford, as per usual Meath's chances will centre on Geraghty. Yesterday was the perfect example of Meath's condition for the last decade or more - if Geraghty has a good game, the entire team has a good game.

Personally I don't think Wexford are quite as strong as they were in their league victory season but as CW points out, they beat us in the league and have the capability of putting together a decent string of victories - and if they do, the momentum will be difficult to stop.

Also, I genuinely hope that Louth make a good fist of the back door this year, it'd be good to see them make decent progress as well as provide a rivalry for the Royals amongst us, now that Westmeath seem to have fallen flat on their arses again. Pity that they seemed to get complaicent over the half-time break.

zAbbo

singingstranger wrote:

Also, I genuinely hope that Louth make a good fist of the back door this year,

:eek:

kaimera

zabbo wrote:

singingstranger wrote:

Also, I genuinely hope that Louth make a good fist of the back door this year,

:eek:

*snigger*

po0k

tbqfh

singingstranger

zabbo wrote:

:eek:

What? It makes it more fun to beat them in future when it's less of a formality!

Atomic Pineapple

Dont think meath can meet louth in the back door until the third round, if meath lose to wexford, and are louth really going to win two whole games when they can only play for one half?

mchurl

Meath v Wexford really is going to be an interesting game. Neither side done well in the league but come championship its all change. Its going to be very closely contested and i think if Meath can perform better at midfield than they did agaisnt Louth, i would just about pick them ahead of Wexford. But in saying that, it will be very tight.

As for Louth, a brilliant fist half performance really petered out in the end. I hope they get a favourable draw in the qualifiers to get some confidence back and that they get a decent run in them, because after winning NFL div 2, to go out so early in the championship would be a major step backwards for them.

hiberno

I know that with the blinkered Meath fans and those who seem to have bought the media view that it was a great 1st half and collapse in the 2nd half bit, now maybe it's just my training as a referee and sense of fair play that bothers me, but Graham Geraghty, one of the most influential players anywhere, should not have been on the field at the end of the 1st half, let alone run the game in the 2nd.

1. He threw a punch at Colin Goss that was seen by the linesman, nearest umpire and referee, and was simply told to "Calm down!", attempt to strike, when spotted is off!

2. Having been legally and fairly dispossessed he then became possessed and struck 4 Louth players after the ball, and continued this the entire length of the pitch. The referee called to him after the first assault and said "Graham stop!" Only after Louth scored a point, and 2 Louth players were on the ground, the referee booked him.

The referee began pulling Louth players up for the same tackles they were making in the first half, which disrupted the flow of the game and wouldn't have helped a team that was beginning to lose its self-belief.

I guess it's better for a "draw" county to go on than making the championship competitive!

Meath have been a real counterweight to the big two (Dublin-Kerry) stranglehold from the 80's, they have proved anything is possible, but without dreadful officiating they were on the verge of going out on Sunday!

The Rooster

hiberno wrote:

I know that with the blinkered Meath fans and those who seem to have bought the media view that it was a great 1st half and collapse in the 2nd half bit.....

Regardless of what Geraghty did or did not get away with, it doesnt take away from the fact that Louth were superb in the first half, and pathetic in the second.

Atomic Pineapple

hiberno wrote:

I know that with the blinkered Meath fans and those who seem to have bought the media view that it was a great 1st half and collapse in the 2nd half bit, now maybe it's just my training as a referee and sense of fair play that bothers me, but Graham Geraghty, one of the most influential players anywhere, should not have been on the field at the end of the 1st half, let alone run the game in the 2nd.

1. He threw a punch at Colin Goss that was seen by the linesman, nearest umpire and referee, and was simply told to "Calm down!", attempt to strike, when spotted is off!

2. Having been legally and fairly dispossessed he then became possessed and struck 4 Louth players after the ball, and continued this the entire length of the pitch. The referee called to him after the first assault and said "Graham stop!" Only after Louth scored a point, and 2 Louth players were on the ground, the referee booked him.

The referee began pulling Louth players up for the same tackles they were making in the first half, which disrupted the flow of the game and wouldn't have helped a team that was beginning to lose its self-belief.

I guess it's better for a "draw" county to go on than making the championship competitive!

Meath have been a real counterweight to the big two (Dublin-Kerry) stranglehold from the 80's, they have proved anything is possible, but without dreadful officiating they were on the verge of going out on Sunday!

You obviously missed all the harassing the louth players were doing on Geraghty the whole way through the game, when the referee finally started pulling them up on it, he was allowed to play and destroyed louth.

You also must have missed the three times brian farrell was punched/elbowed in the face, each time he went to the umpire and the umpire simply nodded his head.

You cant blame the referee for a team not managing to score a single point in the second half, even a referee completely biased to one team couldnt be held accountable for a team not managing to score in the second half.

Waylander

Also, perhaps he should not have been on the pitch, but he was and the Louth team could not deal with that. He was excellent in the second half, and although Louth were very good in the first half, and scored some fantastic points, I think the better team won on the day. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to see a Louth win, as I am sure Rooster would have too, but they should not really be feeling that hard done by. Those sentiments will only get in the way come the backdoor playoffs.