In an exciting Round 1 match of the All-Ireland SFC, Louth ended their 49-year victory drought by defeating Meath with a scoreline of 3-10 to 0-9. Louth hasn’t emerged victorious over Meath since the 1975 Leinster campaign, shortly following the latter’s NFL championship win against the previous All-Ireland champions, Dublin. However, Louth managed to reign supreme this time, led by the brilliance of Colm O’Rourke’s team, and are moving closer to the knock-out stages of the championship.
The match was held on Saturday in Inniskeen and saw Louth generate three goals in the first half. Just nine minutes into the game, Meath was leading with a score of 0-3 to 0-1. But the game took a significant turn when Sam Mulroy received a pass from Conall McKeever and scored an excellent goal in the 14th minute, giving Louth the lead at 1-2 to 0-3.
Louth’s advantage was further cemented when their remarkable wing back Craig Lennon bypassed a number of defenders and hit a perfect shot into the net in the 18th minute. Lennon was able to repeat his phenomenal performance by promptly capitalising on a rebound effort from Mulroy and scoring yet another goal which left Louth with a comfortable lead of 3-3 to 0-4.
Despite the challenging atmosphere in the Meath team due to the sudden demise of Mathew Costello’s father Paul hours before the game, Meath were unable to stage a significant challenge after the opening 10 minutes when they scored three out of four points. The half time scoreline had a gap of three goals, standing at 3-5 to 0-5, with Louth’s full forward Mulroy scoring three frees in addition to his goal. With a point on top of his two goals, Craig Lennon was the man of the match, while Bevan Duffy also contributed to Louth’s total score in the first half.
In the first half of the game, Meath’s initial scores were delivered by the team members – Costello, Coffey, Jones, Hickey, and mark O’Sullivan. Despite introducing Conor Gray and Brian O’Halloran in the beginning of the second half, Meath couldn’t overpower Louth, who maintained their dominance even after Duffy’s exit due to a black card at 38 minutes. The solitary score during that period was secured by Louth from a free strike by Mulroy.
In the match, Mulroy concluded with a score of 1-6. Louth kept their points incrementing on the board with essential contributions from Keenan, Downey and Mulroy. Meath’s frustration escalated as the game continued, with several apparent scoring opportunities missing the mark.
For Louth, the team comprised of McDonnell as goalkeeper; Corcoran, Lynch, and D. McKenny as fullbacks; Sharkey, Williams and Lennon; Durnin and Grimes in midfield; R. Burns, Mulroy and Duffy among others. The substitutes were Byrne for Duffy and Grey for Lennon, amongst others.
Running for Meath were Hogan as keeper, followed by Keogan, O’Neill and Ryan as fullbacks, others included – O’Higgins, Campion, and Coffey and Jones in midfield, with a few others. The second half brought in substitutes including O’Halloran and Gray, among others. The match was officiated by Referee P. Faloon of Down.