Down rally falls short as Meath prevail in Newry

Meath withstood a comeback attempt by Down in Newry on Saturday evening to run out three-point winners in another thrilling Allianz League Division 2 match.

It was a testament to the new rules that nobody was budging from the ground until the buzzer sounded at the finish.

There was nothing between the teams for much of the game, but midway through the second half Meath pulled away and under the old rules that might have been that.

Not these days however, as the Mourne men battled back to get within two, but unlike their resurgence against Cork the previous game, Conor Laverty's men couldn’t quite pull off this one and it was Meath who went home with the points in the bag.

Ciarán Caulfield was back in action in Páirc Esler, having captained DCU to the Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup on Wednesday evening and he still managed to look fresh. Jordan Morris and Eoghan Frayne were also immense, scoring 0-08 each.

It was a cagey start to the game in front of a packed crowd.

Pat Havern opened the scoring from a free after Meath had tested the waters with possession around the arc but with nothing to show for their efforts. Shane Walsh levelled in the fourth minute and the tit for tat continued with the sides level at 0-04 apiece with 10 minutes on the clock.

One of those scores came off the boot of Ronan Jones and while it was clearly incorrectly recorded as a two-pointer, it was not rescinded on the scoreboard and the confusion was never really addressed satisfactorily.

A ’45 converted by Meath keeper Billy Hogan and a point from play by Frayne put the Royals into a two-point lead and while Jones was black carded on 14 minutes, Down didn’t make the most of the numerical advantage only scoring two points from a Havern free and one from