When Sean Boylan popped into the Sligo dressing-room for the usual courtesy call after an absorbing and energetic league tie at Navan yesterday, he must have been tempted to say to his counterpart Peter Forde `swap place-kickers and we'll play you again'.
If Meath had place-kickers of the quality of Paul Taylor and Dessie Sloyane on the field they could have won this game. However, there was much more to Sligo's win than their edge in the free-taking department.
Sligo moved the ball with speed and precision in attack and their defence held up when most needed in the first half with Mark Cosgrove, David Durkin, Nigel Clancy and Noel Maguire providing the inspiration as they faced the wind and rain.
A much reshuffled Meath team, best described as experimental, got an excellent response from regulars Paddy Reynolds, Nigel Crawford, Mark O'Reilly and Nigel Nestor but from the start it became obvious that they would have difficulty in putting scores on the board. For the record, Meath were missing influential players like Trevor Giles, Graham Geraghty, Darren Fay and John McDermott (suspended) but nothing should detract from the flair and guile of a fine Sligo team.
Ten minutes passed before Meath managed to get off the mark, despite wind advantage, with a fortuitous goal in reply to a pointed free by Sloyane. But if Charles McCarthy took his lucky chance well to put Meath ahead he was decidedly unlucky in having to retire minutes later with a leg injury.
Meath struggled in that first half to get on target and were often on the back foot when Sligo's play-makers Eamonn O'Hara, Paul Durkin, Sloyane, Karl O'Neill and Sean Davey combined in dangerous and swift passing movements.
Meath corner backs Paul Murphy and Paul Shankey were too often at full stretch for comfort. But Sligo's tally of eight first-half wides reflected their inability to break down the home defence until the 23rd minute when Sloyane took advantage of a perfect Noel Maguire centre to hit the Meath net and level the scores at 1-2 each.
Meath led by 1-4 to 1-3 at half-time but Eamonn O'Hara resumed in blistering fashion when he raced towards the Meath goal to pick off the opening point of the second half in 10 seconds.
Moments later, Meath got the break they were hoping for when Ollie Murphy knocked down a Stephen Bray centre for Ronan Fitzsimons to bury the ball to the net from close range.
Murphy, who had an off-day and was eventually substituted, proved to be a poor choice for the place-kicking role when missing sitters, and Ronan Fitzsimons was also twice at fault.
Taylor and Sloyane were the real match-winners, sharing 1-9 of the winning tally. "Work rate and our tackling won it for us," said manager Forde. "It may not have been pretty stuff but you cannot produce dandy fare in those conditions. We have no specific targets in the league. We take every match as it comes and I hope we can make it three wins in a row against Cavan next time out."
SLIGO: P Walsh; P Gallagher, M Cosgrove, B Phillips; D Durkin, N Clancy, N Maguire; E O'Hara (0-1), P Durkin; D Sloyane (1-4, two frees), K O'Neill (0-1), S Davey; K Killeen, P Taylor (0-5, four frees), G McGowan (0-1). Subs: C O'Grady for Killeen (29 mins), M Breheny for O'Neill (67 mins).
MEATH: C O'Sullivan: P Shankey, R Rennick, C Murphy; P Reynolds, M O'Reilly, A Moyles; N Crawford, N Nestor; S Bray (0-1), C McCarthy (1-0), D Byrne; R Magee (0-2), O Murphy, R Fitzsimons (1-1). Subs: D Curtis (0-2) for McCarthy (15 mins), J Devine for Bray (57 mins), H Traynor (0-1) for D Byrne (52 mins), J Cullinane for Murphy (65 mins).
Referee: M Hughes (Tyrone).
