Dalton McDonagh’s goal helps Meath finish on a high

Meath 2-10 Louth 1-12

Mick O'Dowd is happy that his Meath team are "in a good place" heading into the Leinster Championship after extending their unbeaten run to four games with a derby victory over Louth.

The result meant nothing in terms of promotion or relegation but O’Dowd was delighted to sign off with another win.

"It was hard to prepare for it, because the score difference meant promotion wasn't realistic, but we're glad to get the win," he said. "Overall we're happy enough. We have taken seven points from our last four games and that includes a good draw up in Donegal, so we're looking forward to the championship now with a bit of confidence."

Aidan O’Rourke’s Lough side fell to their fifth defeat of the campaign, but the Armagh man plucked a few positives from his side’s performance.

“I felt we overran Meath in midfield and won most of the breaks, and they are things we haven’t been doing. We’ve proved to ourselves, if nothing else, that we’re capable of reaching those levels . . .

Very disappointing
"Overall it has been a very disappointing campaign, but it's gone now and we have six weeks to prepare for Westmeath in the Leinster Championship."

Meath needed a late goal from supersub Dalton McDonagh to eventually snatch victory. They started against a gale -force wind, but a fifth-minute goal from Bryan McMahon gave them an early impetus and they retired at the break just a point down, 0-8 to 1-4.

They quickly regained the lead after the restart through Graham Reilly and Andrew Tormey (2), but Louth battled well against the elements and when Séamus Kenny hauled down substitute Cian Doyle, Shane Lennon made no mistake from the penalty spot to make it 1-10 to 1-8.

Brian White extended their lead to three, but McMahon popped over a couple of 21m frees to edge Meath closer. They hit the front again with six minutes left when McDonagh was expertly picked out by Kevin Reilly and fired home a goal from point-blank range.

Shane Lennon had the last word for Louth but they couldn't conjure an equaliser.
MEATH: C McHugh; D Keogan, K Reilly, C Young; S Kenny, D Tobin, D Carroll; B Menton, S O'Rourke; D Larkin, A Tormey (0-2), G Reilly (0-2), D Bray (0-1), S Bray (0-2), B McMahon (1-3, three frees). Subs: D McDonagh (1-0) for D Bray (51 mins), P Harnan for Tobin (51 mins), P Gilsenan for D Larkin (62 mins), S Gillespie for Reilly (62 mins), M O'Sullivan for McMahon (67).
LOUTH: N Gallagher; P Rath, M Fanning, J O'Brien; D O'Hanlon, D Crilly (0-3), A Reid; P Keenan, B Duffy; P Reilly, B White (0-4, one '45', one free), D Byrne (0-2); A McDonnell (0-1), S Lennon (1-1), K Rogers. Subs: C Doyle (0-1) for Rogers (17 mins), J Stewart for B Duffy (44 mins), L Shevlin for Reilly (61 mins), D Clarke for Doyle (67), C Rafferty for Reid (70).
Referee: B Cassidy (Derry).