Battle of the Boyne III

[From the Bunker]

Result had no bearing on last year, had Louth won they would have felt good about winning and would have been more depressed about last years farce. For Meath, this group will always have the baggage from last year.

Meath did to Louth today what they did to Dublin last year. I would not get excited yet.

As for Louth, time for a new voice in the dressing room!

[ExiledGael]

It has made absolutely no difference to the result of the game but worth pointing out that Deegan is a brutal ref.
Its a fair reflection on the state of refereeing that he's considered by the powers that be to be one of their best.

Couldn't believe the amount of time he wastes and how much he holds the game back. Never allows an advantage, never allows a quick free and takes an age to book players or warn them, very often to the detriment of the attacking team or those that were fouled.

[Louth Exile]

Congratulations to Meath. Clearly the best team on the day and won the game playing football. As already pointed out, the standard of football was not great, it was decent and I would have thought that it was by in large an entertaining game for the neutral to watch. Largely played in a good spirit and soccer style chanting from both fans aside there was a large amount of respect shown by the majority of both fans (Jinxy must have been in with the crowd behind the goals chanting cheerio at the end  , I believe its some kind of reference to a favoured cereal in Meath!)

As for the game. Once Meath got a grip on the midfield after the first ten minutes they never relinquished it. Came out on top with the breaking ball and too often Louth men went to catch a ball which their counterparts broke in 99% of cases. We often had small men under the dropping ball as well!! From here they could play ball into Ward who destroyed every one of his markers. This was extremely disappointing, as his sharp shooting aside he doesn't have blistering pace and doesn't like it in the physical stakes either, he tore past some of our pathetic corner backs!! Mick Fanning fronted up very well on a man to man basis with Paddy O Rourke, who I have extreme doubts about being able to play at intercounty level. Ray Finnegan was the only man who drove on Louth with Meath doing an excellent job at curbing Paddy and Donnelly and Carroll both having desperate matches. As for playing Aaron Hoey at centre half!! Well it made it easy for Sheridan didn't it!! A great servant, but to be fair, the manager's naivety aside, he should know himself that he's not fit for it any more

The stats say all that need to said about the Louth attack. The last time that Clarke played a qualifier match in Brefni on a Saturday evening he also came away with an 11 point tally and also lost to a Banty managed team. On that occasion poor preparation from the man that Cavan are afflicted with having over their team currently was to blame for not winning, it was his last game with the county! What for Fitzer from here? Well at least the Meath people will be delighted that Banty is working the oracle for them

As for Ref watch. No he didn't affect the result, I thought that he had a fine first half. At the start of the second half he gifted Meath the opening two points, as neither of those frees was close to being free in. He swung in our favour later in the half when it was too late and only issued Donnelly with a yellow when I felt he deserved a straight red for an elbow to the head on Kenny.

When you are clearly beaten by the better team you can have no complaints, I'll go to Navan to cheer on our Minors on Wednesday night and aside from that we can now focus on the club. As for Meath, they will stumble on with the whole county getting behind Banty and his Northern cohort, sure we did ye all a favour lads

[Hound]

Some great strikes by Cian Ward. Interesting that Goal was the only thing in his mind anytime he got the ball, and it paid dividends.

Thought McAnarney was super at centre half back (only quibble with him was how easy he falls down on the ground). I have seen very little of the chap who got injured, but I'd say he'll struggle to regain the 6 jersey.

[thejuice]

Will start off by saying how glad I am for Cian Ward to return to the starting panel in such good form. And at that how regretful I am to have helped the rumor of him leaving the panel get beyond the usual circles. A lesson learned from that for me.

A much better performance and more of a fight, shown from lads who faded out last time against Kildare. However there was nothing there to suggest we've improved a great deal either.

Shane O'Rourke in MF seems to have given him a new lease of life and perhaps makes better use of him. Joe mightn't have got on the scoreboard much but he contributed well in winning ball. Seamus Kenny was again our best player even with Cians 4 goals. Very impressed with him over the last 2 games.

Watched it in a pub without the sound so any reason for Kevin Reilly not playing? Was Moyles named as starting?

King was caught out badly for the 1st goal and I think Reilly would have done better still but over all Louth didn't pose much of a challenge to our backs.

Only scoring 8 points with so much possession has to be a bit of a worry. We know we wont be getting that kind of space or goal chances again. But still 5 goals were got and they were the winning of it. We have perhaps reason to be a bit more optimistic but I would be cautious no matter who we get next.

My only complaints about the ref was that he penalised 2 fair hard shoulders. One of them the penalty.

[heffo]

Poor enough game, great display from Cian Ward.

Ref was very poor, giving frees for perfect shoulders and holding up play for no reason.

With a few minutes left and Louth needing two goals holding up play to book a player trying to waste time is pointless