Longford 2-14 Meath 1-14

Holders Longford saw off an experimental Meath side to book their place in the O’Byrne Cup final in front of another large crowd at Ashbourne

Diarmuid Moriarty got the scoreboard working for the home side with a fine point after four minutes. Longford hit five bad wides before Meath got their second point from a Cathal Finnegan free. From the next play Meath captain Michael Flood cleared off his own goal line but at this stage the visitors were beginning to dominate and were rewarded with a Jayson Matthews goal and two minutes later Keelin McGann got their first point.

Meath were back in front by the 22nd minute with five unanswered points from Finnegan (2), Jack O’Connor, Daire Rowe, Danny Dixon.

Longford had their second good spell before the break. Darren Gallagher scored 1-2 and a brace from Joseph Hagan gave the midlanders a 2-6 to 0-8 interval lead.

Colm O’Rourke’s men were back on level terms by the 10th minute with a Finnegan brace and a Diarmuid Moriarty goal.

Moriarty and Hagan exchanged points before Gallagher and Jayson Matthews pushed Longford two in front with 12 minutes remaining.

With five minutes left on the clock Longford held a three point lead but scores from Keith Curtis and the outstanding Moriarty narrowed the game to the minimum.

The holders made sure of victory with insurance points from Dylan Farrell and Bryn Peters and set up a final date with Dublin or Wexford.

Meath scorers: Diarmuid Moriarty 1-4, Cathal Finnegan 0-6, Jack O'Connor, Daire Rowe, Danny Dixon and Keith Curtis 0-1 each

Longford scorers: Darren Gallagher 1-3, Jayson Matthews 1-3, Joseph Hagan 0-2, Mark Hughes 0-2, Keelin McGann 0-2 each, Cathal McCabe and Bryn Peters 0-1 each

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