New boss, same old hoodoo

Meath 2 - 6 Westmeath 0 - 11:GALEIC GAMES/O'Byrne Cup final: The Páidí Ó Sé effect was in evidence at yesterday's O'Byrne Cup final as 14,612 - believed to be a competition record - flocked to Cusack Park, Mullingar.

But the Meath effect remained the same, as Westmeath couldn't quite conjure up the now familiar, critical point to see off their neighbours after a protracted and frantic finale.

Joe Sheridan gave Meath the lead, 2-6 to 0-11, at the end of normal time and it was to be the last score of the match despite 10 minutes of injury-time. The length of the epilogue was due to a worrying collision between Meath's Anthony Moyles (who was yellow carded) and opposing corner forward Denis Glennon who took a blow to his neck.

Medical attention took nearly seven minutes before the Westmeath man was braced up and carried away on a stretcher. Initial reports suggested he had avoided serious injury but confirmation awaited further tests in hospital.

As ruefully conceded by Ó Sé, Westmeath lost the match because of chaotic defending in the opening 20 minutes during which they conceded two goals. If that defensive ineptitude will have vexed him greatly, the new manager was at least heartened by his side's response.

"We nearly deserved the draw," he said afterwards, "and had two opportunities at the end. But in the first half we were extremely porous and it cost us the game. We conceded simple goals and from then on it was a fight against the hill. For all that we came back and drew level. I learned more from that than from the other three games put together. We showed battling qualities."

It was a scrappy match, even if the competitiveness of the teams and the tightness of the scoreboard kept the crowd's interest until the very end. At this stage of the season it's understandable that players aren't going to be as sharp as broken glass and possession was duly lost too easily by both sides.

Meath, however, always looked that bit more menacing when they attacked whereas Westmeath, for all their possession in the second half, weren't as threatening.

The match opened in cagey fashion once the delayed throw-in - a now apparently obligatory recourse whenever more than about 800 people attend a match - had been performed. It was the seventh minute before the first score with teenager Paul Martin, on his senior debut, pouncing for two well-taken points to get the home side off to a brisk start.

This unravelled in the 11th minute when Niall Kelly's shot was blocked amid suspicions of a penalty offence but referee Mick Monahan allowed play to run and Shane McKeigue potted the deflection. Ten minutes later and despite some wasteful finishing, Meath pushed into a dominant position.

Sheridan's tasty dispatch found Kelly who showed enough nimbleness for a big man to turn Damien Gavin and finish expertly for a 2-2 to 0-3 lead.

Thought by some to be more effectively deployed in a deeper position, Kelly was nonetheless causing havoc by this stage. Ó Sé unceremoniously called in Gavin and reshuffled the defence with Donal O'Donoghue dropping back to full back and Brian Morley coming in on the wing. Both performed well after redeployment but Westmeath paid a high price on the scoreboard for this defensive audit.

Having got the deficit back to three, 0-5 to 2-2, by half-time, Westmeath began the second half briskly and within minutes the margin was down to one. Rory O'Connell and David O'Shaughnessy moved up a gear at centrefield, where Meath had won a lot of uncontested ball in the first half.

Meath lost Mark O'Reilly at the break to a hamstring twinge but they defended away in characteristic style while sniping scores at the other end looked to have kept the match shimmering in front of Westmeath. But the relentless pressing eventually told and two frees from Joe Fallon sandwiched a point from Martin Flanagan to level the scores.

January or no January the rest of the script made uneasy reading for Westmeath. An element of desperation entered their play with frenzied and incoherent attacks generating more trouble for the umpires than for Meath who economically pocketed one of their few chances to regain the lead.

Fallon missed a kickable free eight minutes into injury time and Fergal Murray, excellent in defence, came up the field to shoot a couple of wides.

If Ó Sé wasn't too cut up over the loss, given the League opener in Cork next Saturday, his Meath counterpart Seán Boylan was displaying similar equanimity.

"It was a curate's egg for us, good and bad. We had seven wides in the first half and they got more scores than we did. But the defence played well under a lot of pressure. Westmeath have good forwards and when they get everyone back together they'll be formidable for anyone."

MEATH: D Gallagher; M O'Reilly, A Moyles, D Curtis; S Kenny, T O'Connor, H Traynor; N Crawford, D Fay; R Magee (capt; 0-2, both frees), S McKeigue (1-1), A Kenny (0-1); B Farrell, N Kelly (1-0), J Sheridan (0-2, one free). Subs: N McKeigue for Curtis (31 mins), P Reynolds for O'Reilly (half-time), E Kelly for Farrell (45 mins), J Cullinane for Kelly (72 mins), B Dillon for Magee (80 mins).

WESTMEATH: A Lennon; J Davitt, D Galvin, F Murray; D O'Donoghue, D Kilmartin, D Heavin; R O'Connell, D O'Shaughnessy; F Dardis, M Ennis, A Mangan; J Fallon (0-5, three frees), P Martin (0-3), D Glennon (0-2, one free). Subs: B Morley for Gavin (23 mins), M Flanagan for Dardis (48 mins), J Conroy for Glennon (61 mins), JP Casey for Martin (69 mins).

Referee: M Monahan (Kildare).