Sligo senior hurlers ended up with a second defeat in this year’s
league when Meath took all the points away from the sides’ Allianz NHL Div 2B clash
at Markievicz Park on Sunday.
The final margin of six points was somewhat flattering to the
men from the Royal County who flashed on three later scores to put a distance between
the teams at the final whistle.
For many the game will go down as a two-man shootout between Sligo’s
forward talisman Andrew Kilcullen and Meath's Padraig O'Hanrahan with Kilcullen
finishing on nine points and O’Hanrahan on an outstanding 15.
Sligo opened strongly with Kilcullen notching four points – all from
placed balls before O’Hanrahan opened the Meath accounts.
A second point from Meath for centre forward Nicky Potterton was
followed by Sligo’s first from play from Kilcullen again to leave the scores at
0-5 to 0-2 after 12 minutes.
Meath began to get dominance in the middle of the field as the experienced
Pa Ryan and Martin Healy started to exert control. Two more O’Hanrahan points
and a fine score from play from an acute angle near the sideline by Niall McLarnon
for Meath had the sides level on 17 minutes.
Sligo were still getting their chances however and Math keeper
Charlie Ennis did extremely well to deny Conor Hanniffy a goal.
O’Hanrahan and Kilcullen swapped two points each before Sligo’s Tomas
Cawley split the posts with a magnificent effort from nearly 70m and at the sideline on 24
minutes to restore his side’s advantage.
O'Hanrahan levelled matters again and then give his side the
lead for the first time on 27 minutes. A huge drive from almost half way from
midfielder Pa Ryan extended the lead to two and then two more from O'Hanrahan
saw Meath into a four-point lead as the first half clicked into added time,
Sligo completed the first half scoring as Diarmuid Hanniffy
slotted a long range free on the stroke of half time to see Sligo go into the break
three down - 0-12 to 0-9.
The tit for tat contest continued in
the opening exchanges of the second half as O’Hanrahan and Hanniffy exchanging two
frees each before Sligo got the game’s first goal when he finished cooly after
a fine through ball from Cawley.
Meath however were again beginning to get the upper hand and points
from Ryan, his midfield partner Martin Healy and O’Hanrahan put them back in
front.
Further points from O'Hanrahan and Healy extended the Meath
advantage to three with ten minutes to go.
Sligo had a glimmer of
hope when Meath were reduced to 14 men with eight minutes to go, followed by another
Kilcullen point but
it was to be Sligo’s last score of the day as O’Hanrahan, Ryan and substitute Jack Regan added points to
give the visitors six-point margin on the full-time whistle.
SLIGO; Luke Comerford, Darragh Cawley, James Weir, Kevin O'Kennedy
(C), Niall Feehily, Rory McHugh, Ronan Molloy, Niall Kilcullen, Fionn Connolly,
Conor Hannify, Eddie O'Donoghue, Thomas Cawley (0-1), Diarmuid Hannify (0-3 f), Andy
Kilcullen (0-9 6f, 2 65’s), Joe McHugh (1-0)
Subs; Liam O'Kelly-Lynch for O'Donoghue (71)
MEATH; Charlie Ennis (C), Stephen Morris, Adam O'Connor, Brendan
McKeon, Kyle Donnelly, James Toher, James Kelly, Pa Ryan (0-3), Martin
Healy (0-1), Simon Ennis, Nicholas Potterton (0-1), Niall
McLarnon (0-1), Sean Quigley, Mikey Cole, Padraig O'Hanrahan (0-15 12f).
Subs; Mickey Burke for O'Connor, Jack Regan (0-1) for
Mikey Cole, Patrick Barnwell for Simon Ennis, Tom Shine for McLarnon, Joe Cole
for Potterton.