Derry 1-14
Meath 1-11
Trailing by seven points at half-time, Derry staged a remarkable second half recovery to win by three and send Meath tumbling out of the championship in Owenbeg this afternoon.
Sub Niall Loughlin's goal with two minutes of normal time remaining proved decisive as Damian Barton's men outscored the visitors by 1-10 to 0-3 after the restart to secure their place in Monday morning's All-Ireland SFC qualifier Round 3 draw. It was a case of deja vu for the Royals who have made a habit out of throwing away big half-time leads, having suffered similar collapses against Westmeath, Cavan and Galway in the last 12 months.
This latest meltdown could well spell the end of Mick O'Dowd's four-year reign and will lead to yet another inquest into why Meath can play so well in the first half of games, but then go AWOL in the second half.
It had looked so promising for the visitors when they led by 1-8 to 0-4 at the interval after a dominant opening 35 minutes. But the old doubts began to resurface when Derry resumed with six unanswered points in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Meath continued to cling onto a slender lead until Loughlin collected a long delivery from James Kielt and took on his man before firing low past Paddy O'Rourke for the game's all-important score.
With five minutes of injury-time signalled, there was still plenty of time for the Royals to save themselves, but they simply couldn't get their hands on the ball as a composed Derry team closed out the game.
Favoured by the breeze, the visitors came flying out of the blocks to lead by 0-4 to 0-0 after just seven minutes thanks to points from Padraig Harnan, Graham Reilly (two) and Mickey Newman (free). Mark Lynch eventually opened Derry's account in the 15th minute, only for Cillian O'Sullivan to restore Meath's four-point cushion from a free.
Newman and Lynch twice traded scores before the Royals underlined their dominance with a 26th minute goal from Donnacha Tobin after Bryan McMahon - who was one of three changes from the team that suffered a heavy defeat to Dublin - and the rampaging Reilly had been involved in the build-up.
James Kielt replied with a point for a rattled Derry side, but a second O'Sullivan free gave Meath a deserved seven-point lead at the break.
Whatever Damian Barton said to his players in the dressing-room at half-time seemed to work as the Oak Leafers restarted with four points inside the opening five minutes per Mark Lynch, Christopher Bradley, Eoghan Brown and Kielt (free) to leave just a goal in it, 0-8 to 1-8.
All the momentum was now with the rejuvenated hosts as Lynch scored on the counterattack before Kielt kicked a massive free in the 44th minute to reduce the deficit to the minimum.
Mickey Burke wandered up from corner back to register a badly-needed score for Meath before Newman tapped over a 13-metre free to put them three up. But Derry weren't going away and got another point back when full back Chrissy McKaigue scored from an acute angle in the 50th minute.
Andrew Tormey came off the bench to score a crucial point from a free for the Royals, but they remained on the back-foot as another sub Enda Lynn and Lynch (free) made it a one-point game again with five minutes remaining.
The home supporters were on their feet three minutes later when Loughlin rattled the net to give the Oak Leafers the lead for the first time, 1-11 to 1-9. The goal came after Niall Toner carried the ball out of defence before passing to James Kielt whose supplied the ammunition for the goal-scorer.
And it was the accurate Kilrea man who finished off Meath with his fourth point in stoppage-time.
Derry - T Mallon; G McKinless, C McKaigue (0-1), K McKaigue; C McFaul, B Rogers, C Mullan; C McAtamney, N Holly; D Heavron, C Bradley (0-1), E Brown (0-1); J Kielt (0-4, 3f), E McGuckin, M Lynch (0-6, 2f). Subs: N Toner for E McGuckin, N Loughlin (1-0) for E Brown, E Bradley for N Holly, E Lynn (0-1) for C Bradley, N Forrester for B Rogers (BC), L McGoldrick for C Mullan.
Meath - P O'Rourke; D Tobin, D Keogan, M Burke (0-1); D Smyth, P Harnan (0-1), A Douglas; H Rooney, C O'Brien; G Reilly (0-2), C O'Sullivan (0-2f), B McMahon; D Lenihan, S Lavin, M Newman (1-4, 0-3f). Subs: E Wallace for B McMahon, D McDonagh for M Newman, A Tormey (0-1f) for D Lenihan, S Tobin for D Keogan.
Referee - P Neilan.
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