Murphy leads Donegal home

GAELIC GAMES/Donegal 0-15 Meath 0-9:MICHAEL MURPHY-inspired Donegal boosted their prospects of promotion to the top flight of the league when comfortably outpointing a poor Meath side at Páirc Tailteann.

The full-forward made a massive contribution which included four points from play. The highlight of those scores was a majestic effort from the left sideline 22 minutes into the second half.

After the sides were level twice in the early exchanges, Donegal took control with Ryan Bradley scoring three points. After Brian Meade hit Meath’s second score from play after eight minutes, they did not register again from play until the half-hour mark in the second half when Nigel Crawford found on target.

Despite playing against the breeze, the visitors cruised into an advantage of five points before Brian Sheridan slotted over a couple of frees to leave it 0-7 to 0-4 at the break.

The agony for the home supporters continued as Donegal virtually killed the game as a contest with Murphy (two) and midfielder Rory Kavanagh adding points in the opening six minutes after the restart.

Meath substitute Terry Skelly was shown a straight red card for a challenge on David Walsh in added time at the end. Meath now have a fight on their hands to stay out of relegation trouble.

DONEGAL: P Durkan; P McGrath, N McGee, K Lacey; A Thompson, F McGlynn, K Cassidy; R Kavanagh (0-2), M McElhinney; M Hegarty, M McHugh, D Molloy (0-1); R Bradley (0-3), M Murphy (0-6, 0-2 frees), C McFadden (0-3, 0-2 frees). Subs: D Walsh for Hegarty (49 mins), N Gallagher for McElhinney, A Hanlon for McFadden (both 69 mins), S Griffin for McHugh (70 mins).

MEATH: B Murphy; A Moyles, B Menton, C King; G O’Brien, C McGuinness, N Nestor; B Meade (0-1), N Crawford (0-1); S McAnarney, B Sheridan (0-2, frees), S Kenny; D Morgan, J Sheridan (0-1, 45), S O’Rourke (0-2, 0-1 free). Subs: T Skelly (0-1) for O’Brien, P Gilsenan for Kenny, E Harrington for Moyles (all 48 mins), M Ward for Menton (52 mins), B Farrell (0-1, free) for B Sheridan (54 mins).

Referee: M Higgins (Fermanagh).