{"id":298402,"date":"2026-02-14T22:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298402\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T22:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:11:08","slug":"late-flynn-deuce-makes-it-three-from-three-for-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298402\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Flynn deuce makes it three from three for Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Flynn rode to Meath’s rescue yet again with another late, late two-point score to secure a sweet National Football League win, moving the Royal County top of Division 2 on their own.<\/p>\n

Just as he did in Cavan in Round 2, midfielder Flynn stole the headlines by raising an orange flag in the very last minute to secure the win for Meath.<\/p>\n

With three wins from three having also defeated Derry in Round 1, when Flynn was man of the match with 0-07, Robbie Brennan’s side have taken pole position in the promotion race.<\/p>\n

Ruair\u00ed Kinsella’s 1-03 contribution was important too while Jordan Morris fired over six points.<\/p>\n

But the 2025 All-Ireland semi-finalists came so close to suffering another agonising defeat to old rivals Louth who memorably defeated them in last summer’s Leinster final, as well as in last season’s league.<\/p>\n

Louth trailed by 11 points at half-time but turned it around with four second half two-pointers from captain Sam Mulroy, and 0-04 from former All-Star Craig Lennon, to lead by a point at the death.<\/p>\n

That’s when Flynn took matters into his own hands, lofting over what is now becoming a trademark score, his fourth two-pointer of the campaign so far.<\/p>\n

\"14
\nLouth’s Ciaran Downey is tackled by Bryan Menton of Meath<\/p>\n

Anybody wondering beforehand about the validity of the Meath-Louth rivalry got their answer within seconds of the throw-in.<\/p>\n

Referee Brendan Griffin had his eye on a scuffle among a number of players at the Hill 16 End and stopped the clock after just nine seconds to dish out four black cards.<\/p>\n

All-Star Meath defender Se\u00e1n Rafferty and his colleague Brian O’Halloran were sent to the line along with Mulroy and Ciar\u00e1n Downey.<\/p>\n

Later in the half, just as Kinsella had got the ball away for a point, he took a big hit from Peter Lynch that earned the Louth defender a booking. Lynch ended up being taken off in the 32nd minute with an injury after a foul by Morris that drew a booking. There were four yellow cards and four black cards in total in the first half alone.<\/p>\n

That Kinsella point in the 23rd minute was an inspirational score that ignited a storming passage of Meath play, yielding 1-07 in total without response.<\/p>\n

Meath had been 0-07 to 0-06 ahead, thanks in part to an early two-pointer from Kinsella, but the blitzkrieg of scoring between the 23rd and 29th minutes opened up a 1-14 to 0-06 lead for the hosts.<\/p>\n

Meath took over completely at midfield in this period, laying waste to the Louth kick-out with catch after catch to create score after score.<\/p>\n

If it wasn’t Cian McBride pulling balls from the air, it was Bryan Menton or Donal Keogan, the latter fetching well and setting up Morris for a two-pointer.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the half, there was concern when Morris crumpled in agony after contorting his body to get a pass away that was intercepted. Louth worked a score off the turnover and counter-attack for Lennon, but the real worry was Morris as he suffered a serious knee injury in the corresponding fixture last spring. Thankfully for Meath, the Kingscourt man got back going again and played a key role.<\/p>\n

Kinsella struck Meath’s goal in the 24th minute, cutting through the centre of Louth’s defence after being released by Mathew Costello.<\/p>\n

There was drama just before half time when Louth were awarded a penalty for a Costello foul on Downey who was just about to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n

Mulroy stepped up to take the kick but his shot was poor and Meath goalkeeper Se\u00e1n Brennan got down to his left to save, ending the half with Meath 1-15 to 0-07 ahead as the siren had already sounded.<\/p>\n

Meath didn’t escape entirely as the influential Costello had to be replaced at half time with an apparent leg injury from throwing himself into the challenge.<\/p>\n

\"14
\nPlayers from both sides conducted a joint warm up. Shortly after throw-in.<\/p>\n

Louth, now playing with the stiff wind, reeled off the first four scores of the second half, amounting to 0-06 as Mulroy converted two two-point frees.<\/p>\n

Meath didn’t manage another point until Morris executed a textbook backdoor cut in the 50th minute and fisted over.<\/p>\n

Louth continued to eat into the deficit and two more Mulroy two-pointers from frees left his side just a point behind with four minutes to go.<\/p>\n

Lennon then struck back to back points to move Louth ahead for the first time in the game.<\/p>\n

It seemed like they’d done enough to steal the win but Flynn took on the responsibility yet again for Meath with his game clinching last gasp two-pointer.<\/p>\n

Meath: Se\u00e1n Brennan; Seamus Lavin, Se\u00e1n Rafferty, Brian O’Halloran; Donal Keogan, Se\u00e1n Coffey, Ciar\u00e1n Caulfield; Jack Flynn (0-03, 1 tp), Cian McBride; Mathew Costello (0-03, 1 tp), Ruair\u00ed Kinsella (1-03, 1 tp), Bryan Menton (0-01); Jordan Morris (0-06, 1 tp, 0-01f), Eoghan Frayne (0-01, 0-01f), Aaron Lynch (0-02).<\/p>\n

Subs: Conor Duke for Costello h\/t, Jack O’Connor (0-01) for Lynch 49, Adam O’Neill for Menton 56, Killian Smyth for Keogan 65.<\/p>\n

Louth: Niall McDonnell; Padraic Tinnelly, Dermot Campbell, Donal McKenny; Craig Lennon (0-04), Peter Lynch, Emmet Carolan; Dara McDonnell (0-01), Conor Early; Paul Mathews (0-03, 1 tp), Sam Mulroy (0-09, 4 tpf, 0-01f), Conor Grimes (0-01); Tadhg McDonnell (0-01), Ciar\u00e1n Downey (0-02), Ryan Burns.<\/p>\n

Subs: Conall McKeever for Lynch 32, Kieran McArdle for McDonnell h\/t, Eoghan Callaghan for Grimes 48, Ciaran Keenan (0-01) for Burns 48, Daire Nally for McDonnell 63.<\/p>\n

Referee: Brendan Griffin (Kerry).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Flynn rode to Meath’s rescue yet again with another late, late two-point score to secure a sweet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-298402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}