
Share
25th August 2018
03:21pm BST

By DECLAN ROONEY
So it came as some surprise when the home side drew level after 13 minutes. It took a storming run from Jenny Higgins to break the Meath cover, and her pass was palmed to the net by Laura Fleming.
Meath could have been rocked by that leveller, but instead they reeled off three quick points, with Grimes, O’Sullivan and Niamh Gallogly all on target. When they backed it up with Marion Farrelly’s goal after 18 minutes, following O’Neill’s block, Meath were well on the road to victory.
Three minutes later O’Neill bagged a goal of her own on the back of a brilliant flowing move launched when Máire O’Shaughnessy intercepted a Roscommon ball out of defence, which meant Meath were good value for their 2-9 to 1-1 half-time lead.
A brilliant team goal if you've ever seen one. Like the Dublin footballers, they eliminate the chances of missing by as good as walking the ball into the net.
https://twitter.com/SportTG4/status/1033330225462042624
Considering Meath kicked ten wides in that opening period their lead could have been much further ahead but a Grimes free and another Wall score had Meath in control after the restart.
Laura Fleming struck Roscommon’s second goal in the 42ndminute, but that only cut the gap to ten points and when Grimes converted a penalty after a foul on O’Sullivan, Meath ran out easy victors.
Scorers – Meath: S Grimes 1-7 (4f, 1-0pen), F O’Neill 1-3, M Farrelly 1-1, V Wall 0-2, N O’Sullivan 0-3 (1f), N Gallogly 0-1, E White 0-1.
Roscommon: R Finan 0-4 (3f), L Fleming 1-0, A Kelly 1-0, J Downey 0-1.
Meath: M McGuirk; K Newe, O Lally, O Duff; S Ennis, M Thynne, N Gallogly; M O’Shaughnessy, K Byrne; F O’Neill, M Farrelly, A Cleary; S Grimes, V Wall, N O’Sullivan (c),.
Subs: A Leahy for Byrne (43), E White for O’Neill (47), B Keogh for Ennis (51), S Cleary for Gallogly (54), O Byrne for Farrelly (54).
Roscommon: H Cummins; H Ennis, A McLoone, M Kelly; S Bruen, A MacAuliffe, S Kenny (c); J Cregg, J Higgins; A Kelly, R Wynne, L Fleming; S Brady, R Finan, N Feeney.
Subs: J Downey for Brady (26), R Mullaney for Bruen (38), L Brady for Finan (50), F Beirne for Ennis (50), R Brady for Kelly (51).Explore more on these topics: