Kildare suffer 14-point defeat at home to Meath

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 2

KILDARE 0-10 

MEATH 1-21   

Kildare’s spiral towards an immediate return to Division 3 accelerated in a chastening 14-point defeat to neighbours Meath at Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday night.

It all looked so rosy for Brian Flanagan’s side when they picked up three points from their opening two games against Tyrone and Offaly but three defeats on the trot to Derry, Cavan and Meath leave them just one point above the relegation zone with two difficult looking games against Cork and Louth remaining.

By common consent Meath are further along in their development than Kildare but the scale of the difference in size, strength and conditioning, and, most starkly, football know-how, was an eye-opener for those Kildare supporters present, who disappointingly, were outnumbered by away fans for the fourth game in succession, including the hurling clash with Clare.

Kildare were dismal against Cavan the week before, and clearly Meath are a much better team than the Breffni men, who suffered a comprehensive home defeat to Louth earlier in the evening and remain in the bottom two with winless Offaly, but one would have hoped Flanagan’s side would lift their own performance above the levels shown in Cavan.

Sadly, that never transpired, with the same struggles to win primary possession, poor shooting, lax defending and a propensity to be stripped of the ball far too easily in the tackle, once more mitigating against the home side being competitive.

Meath, on the other hand, were ravenous, confident and well-organised as they put their defeat to Cork behind them. They looked like winners from the opening minute.

Boosted by the inclusion of All Star full-back Seán Rafferty, they had Kildare chasing shadows in the opening quarter, much to the delight of their raucous travelling support and a return of 1-7 to 0-1 inside the opening sixteen minutes gave them a platform they never looked like relinquishing.

Kildare couldn’t live with a slick forward line in which Jack O’Connor, Eoghan Frayne and Jordan Morris were outstanding in those opening exchanges while Bryan Menton and Jack Flynn dominated midfield and the Meath defence imposed themselves physically and impressively on a lightweight looking home attack, despite the return from suspension of Alex Beirne.

Colm Dalton was another returnee after hamstring trouble and played quite deep around the middle, while Jack McKevitt replaced James McGrath in another late change though he was substituted after 21 minutes.

After Morris and Beirne exchanged early points, Meath took total control with O’Connor landing the first two of his four first-half points and Aaron Lynch adding their fourth before Morris danced through a labouring Kildare defence and netted from close range on eleven minutes after goalkeeper Cian Burke had initially appeared to dispossess him.

With Burke’s kick outs struggling to find a colleague in white, Meath added further points from Frayne, O’Connor and Morris to lead by 1-7 to 0-1.

Kildare rallied briefly thanks to two-pointers from play from Darragh Kirwan and Brian McLoughlin into the town end by the 20th minute but four wides and two dropped short saw them fail to make further inroads with Meath adding a fourth from O’Connor and, after a twelve minute scoreless spell, a fine effort from Ruairí Kinsella as they deservedly went in seven points ahead (1-9 to 0-5).

Playing with the wind in the second half, Meath’s shooting slackened in the third quarter, but Kildare, with Beirne off with a shoulder injury and replaced by Kevin Feely, couldn’t narrow the gap, with the sides sharing the opening six points after the interval.

Ben Loakman’s third point of the second half briefly brought Kildare back to within six with fifteen minutes remaining, but it was Meath who finished the stronger.

Temporary substitute Charlie O’Connor, fellow substitute Keith Curtis and Ruairí Kinsella made it 1-15 to 0-9 before McLoughlin shot Kildare’s last score, a point.

With the away support lapping it up man-of-the-match Morris brought his tally to 1-5 before goalkeeper Seán Brennan got in on the act with two superb two-point frees and a ’45, stretching their lead to fourteen points and securing a first win at the Newbridge venue in eight visits stretching back to 2000.

For Kildare, a second leaden-footed performance in succession and a third defeat in a row, will be a big concern for manager Brian Flanagan with those difficult games away to Cork and at home to Louth to come. If they can’t win one of those, they may be relying on Offaly to beat Cavan next time out to save their bacon.

Meath have no such concerns and with four wins in five games are in a strong position to clinch a return to Division 1 after this morale boosting win.

KILDARE: Cian Burke; Harry O’Neill, Pádraic Spillane, Brian Byrne; James Harris, Eoin Lawlor, Jack McKevitt; Colm Dalton, Brendan Gibbons; Brian McLoughlin 0-3 (1tp), Callum Bolton, Colm Moran 0-1; Ben Loakman 0-3 (2fs), Alex Beirne 0-1, Darragh Kirwan 0-2 (tp). 

Subs: Ryan Burke for McKevitt 21, Kevin Feely for Beirne h-t, Eoin Cully for Moran 43, Sam Doran for Dalton 54, Liam Kelly for O’Neill 61.

MEATH: Seán Brennan 0-5 (2tpf,1’45); Seamus Lavin, Sean Rafferty, Brian O’Halloran; Donal Keogan, Seán Coffey, Ciaran Caulfield; Bryan Menton, Jack Flynn 0-1; Jack O’Connor 0-4, Ruairí Kinsella 0-2, Adam O’Neill; Jordan Morris 1-5, Eoghan Frayne 0-1, Aaron Lynch 0-1. 

Subs: Ronan Ryan for Lavin (temp) 34-35, Cian McBride for Menton (temp) 35-40, Oisín Martin for O’Connor 44, McBride for O’Neill 48, Keith Curtis 0-1 for Lynch 53, Charlie O’Connor 0-1 for Menton (temp) 53-59, Jason Scully for Kinsella 64, Jamie Murphy for Frayne 66.

REFEREE: Sean Hurson (Tyrone).