I honestly thought we'd be meeting Westmeath in the semi final given their form so far this year. Should be a good battle this one as arguably both Meath and Laois are about Division 2 standard despite our promotion. Woolly's podcast will be interesting in the next 2 weeks as he went to our game yesterday. He'll have to talk about us now. Maybe bring John Cullenane on as a special guest in the run up.
Hopefully Laois will provide a rigorous warm-up for Meath's date with destiny - the showdown with the Dubs on 23rd June (the day before the fair) ;)
Don't know if this will be a warm up. Every game seems like a step into the unknown with this team. Carlow were on a hiding to nothing given the hand they were dealt by suspensions and injuries as the game went on only to be compounded by the sending off. This will be a right battle. We don't seem to be able to control games and even if we play well Laois will get their period of dominance as all teams who play us do.
As before we have a good strength in depth this year but how far it can take us remains to be seen.
Just Remembered I need to post this
(https://www.ppai.ie/photos/public/large/53/851.jpg)
Meath team I think will start
Andrew Colgan
Seamus Lavin,
Conor McGill,
Shane Gallagher,
Pauric Harnan,
Donal Keogan,
James McEntee,
Bryan Menton,
Adam Flanagan
Cillian O'Sullivan,
Ben Brennan,
Brian McMahon,
James Conlon,
Michael Newman,
Thomas O'Reilly.
Graham Reilly, Barry Dardis, Seán Tobin, Eoin Lynch, Gavin McCoy all able to come off the bench and make a difference if needed.
Not sure how this will go Laois are lacking pace and give up a lot of goal chances they are too reliant on o Carroll and Kingston for scores , I know very little about Meath but if I was them I'd get my Pacey players on the ball as much as possible .
If Laois are to win it will be something like 0-16 to 1-11 if Meath score 2 goals I don't think Laois can score enough to win
Well the first quarter was a hard watch, but then it livened up.
Laois shooting pretty appalling, they had most scoring chances but couldn't make it count. Donie on for Evan after 30m. Evan had missed a 14 yarder, although the other Kingston had done nothing either.
Goals in Meath, Cillian had very hard luck after a scintillating run, but Menton buried one later. A penalty on stroke of HT from Newman made it 2-6 to 0-7. Came about from a mis hit shot
Meant to say little Jamie Conlon was the star man of the half for Meath. Looks about 14 but very lively and accurate.
Laois missed 2 gilt edged goal chances in the first 5 minutes of the second half
2-6 to 0-9 after 46mins
Laois missed another two gilt edged goal chances in the 3rd quarter! But then Meath scored a lovely win 1-3 in about 5 mins including another cracking goal by Menton and that ended the contest. Easy win for Meath in the end
Going by the radio, it seemed like Laois could have had a few goals in the second half but just didn't take them. Could have been a lot closer yet somehow at the same time we missed a lot of scorable chances in the closing stages.
Sounds like Newman, Gallagher, McGill, Brennan and McMahon didn't play well enough but that's the perspective from the radio commentary. People at the game were more positive. Menton didn't win anything in midfield by the sounds of it but still got two goals.