Meath dish out more heartbreak

So Meath reproduce flashes of their All-Ireland form when they most need to and it's just enough to pip Mayo at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday.

After a game that crawled out of the blocks but ended on a roll, Trevor Giles left the Meath supporters with smiles all round even though it was late into injury time before he produced it. Mayo had their noses in front for most of the second half but when Giles curled over the deciding point - as good as he's ever hit - the opposition's hearts finally sank.

"It's very hard on Mayo to lose like that," admitted Meath manager Sean Boylan. "They put up such a battle that a draw would probably have been a fair result. In a lot of ways this was a National League match that was played with championship intensity."

Yet from a spectator point of view, it wasn't so much what would happen next, but what would go wrong next. Both sides had their moments to build up conclusive leads yet neither was able to make them count. Meath missed two clear goal chances in the first half from Richie Kealy and Donal Curtis while James Horan, on fire all afternoon for Mayo, had the most costly miss of all. Moments after Giles had edged Meath in front, his final free swept just wide and that ended Mayo's hopes of a share of the points.

"Just when we seemed to be getting on top, we'd make some sort of mistake and they would capitalise on that," added Boylan. "But when we were chasing them a lot of our lads picked it up again and I'm most pleased about that. The old battle instincts seemed to come back to us again. We needed that because this is a good Mayo side."

Meath had very little pattern to their game in the first half. Graham Geraghty concluded one of the better runs from Jody Devine and Giles with the opening goal on 17 minutes. Mayo were chipping away points, mostly through Horan, and then pulled in front just before half-time when Stephen Carolan got on the end of a long ball from Horan to blast the ball straight past Cormac Sullivan in the Meath goal.

That left them 1-5 to 1-4 in front but the pace was set to rise significantly in the second half. Mayo took the initiative and pushed the lead to three with the best point coming from Trevor Mortimer. Meath brought on a succession of substitutes, most notably Darren Fay, and as their defence tightened up, the game spilled into the dramatic climax.

Horan put Mayo 1-9 to 1-8 ahead as the clock ticked out yet, in the hectic period of added time, (some five minutes), Giles was able to first level the game and then win it

For Mayo manager Pat Holmes, it was still a good learning experience. "To lose by a point I suppose is encouraging but Meath were missing a few regular players and we were really hoping we could win the game. "We were well placed to do that with a couple of minutes to go but those last few chances dropped a little short."

The young Rory Hannick did particularly well at midfield for Mayo, as did other newcomers James Gill and Enda Lavelle. "It's still a developing period," added Holmes. "When I came in we could have gone with the same panel of players from the last three or four years but that would achieve nothing. We wanted to see what's around the county and have tried out a lot of new players.

"Now we'll be looking for a more settled team in time for the championship. We've got a lot of benefit out of the league, no doubt about that, and while nobody likes to be relegated, it won't be the end of the world if we are."

MEATH: C Sullivan; P Shankey, M O'Reilly, C Murphy; H Traynor, A Moyles, R Kealy (0-2); N Crawford, S Dillon; T Giles (0-6, four frees), J Devine (0-1), N Nestor; D Curtis (0-1), G Geraghty (1-0), R Fitzsimons. Subs: R Magee for Dillon, D Fay for Murphy (both 46 mins), P Reynolds for Curtis (70 mins).

MAYO: P Burke; K Mortimer, K Cahill, A Higgins; D Higgins, J Nallen, B Ruane; D Brady (0- 1), R Hannick; C McManamon (0-1), K McDonald (0-1), J Gill; S Carolan (1-1), J Horan (0-5, three frees), T Mortimer (0-1). Subs: D Heaney for D Higgins (half-time), E Lavelle for McManamon (48 mins), P Fallon for Hannick (59 mins), G Morley for Mortimer (68 mins), M Moyles for Carolan (70 mins).

Referee: P McCann (Westmeath).