Robbie Brennan\u2019s side breathed life back into their stuttering season, producing an outstanding second half to carve out a well-earned win over a limited Derry side that battled to the bitter end.<\/p>\n
Starved of possession and completely wiped out at kick-out time, Derry could thank their economy in front of the posts as the two teams ran in 1-9 apiece at half-time.<\/p>\n
With the gun to their temples the contest fizzled with real championship intensity from the second Dan Higgins won the opening throw-in. Meath drew first blood when Donal Keogan rounded Derry goalkeeper Shea McGuckin and slid the ball into the back of the net for a nerve-settling goal.<\/p>\n
James Sargent marked his first start in a Derry shirt when he fired over his side\u2019s opening score which was quickly followed by a point from Shane McGuigan.<\/p>\n
Jack Flynn nailed the first two pointer of the evening which was quickly followed up by another two pointer from Bryan Menton as Meath led 1-5 to 0-4.<\/p>\n
Despite struggling to win any aerial ball Derry accounted for the next three points, with Sargent again among the scorers.<\/p>\n
The visitors, controlling vast swathes of game, notched four consecutive scores which included an eye-catching James Conlon brace.<\/p>\n
Plagued by far too many wides, Meath still held a 1-9 to 1-6 advantage after half an hour.<\/p>\n
But again, in a match full of cut and thrust, the home side swung back into life. Late first-half points from Eoin McEvoy, Ruair\u00ed Forbes and young Sargent levelled matters at the break.<\/p>\n
![\"Derry’s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LIIMM4C4VZQ7ZGERB5ZXJ2NUZQ.jpg\")
Derry\u2019s James Sargent on his way to scoring a goal despite Meath\u2019s Jack Flynn. Photograph: Lorcan Doherty\/Inpho <\/p>\n
Black cards for Cian McBride and Ronan Ryan (Meath), and Conor Doherty and Gareth McKinless (Derry) for a half-time melee heralded the start of second-half hostilities.<\/p>\n
A two pointer from goalkeeper Se\u00e1n Brennan was the key score as the Royals enjoyed the better restart.<\/p>\n
A Shane McGuigan clinker pulled the sides level at 1-14 after 45 minutes before Meath opened a three-point gap that they never looked like relinquishing.<\/p>\n
Player of the match James Conlon (0-7) was their little magician, weaving spells all over Celtic Park and landing points at his leisure.<\/p>\n
Mathew Costello\u2019s second point handed his side a 1-20 to 1-15 lead with 10 minutes to go. Two pointers from Lachlan Murray and Shane McGuigan kept Derry on Meath\u2019s coat-tails but Meath revved up the engines for the home straight and would not be denied.<\/p>\n
All but dismantling Derry at kick-outs, Meath attacked with a more serrated edge and moved their scoreboard forward at regular intervals with Keogan, substitute Killian Smyth and Eoghan Frayne all finding important points.<\/p>\n
The winners controlled the dying embers of the contest to run out convincing victors as the sun set quickly on both Celtic Park and Derry\u2019s season.<\/p>\n
DERRY: S McGuckin; P McGrogan, B Rogers (0-0-2), C McCluskey; C Doherty, G McKinless (0-0-1), E McEvoy (0-0-3); C Glass, D Higgins; E Doherty, J Sargent (1-0-2, 1f), R Forbes (0-0-2); P Cassidy, S McGuigan (0-1-3), L Murray (0-1-2).<\/p>\n
Subs: N Loughlin for C Glass, D Baker for P Cassidy (both h-t); N O\u2019Donnell for D Higgins (55); S Young for R Forbes (57); C Higgins (0-0-1) for D Baker, C Hickey for J O\u2019Connor (both 61).<\/p>\n
MEATH: S Brennan (0-1-0, tpf); S Lavin, S Rafferty, R Ryan; D Keogan (1-0-2), B Menton (0-1-1), S Coffey; J Flynn (0-1-1), J O\u2019Connor; C McBride (0-0-1), M Costello (0-0-2), C Caulfield; J Morris (0-0-2), J Conlon (0-0-7), E Frayne (0-0-1, f).<\/p>\n
Subs: K Smyth (0-0-1) for R Ryan (46 mins); C O\u2019Connor for B Menton (55); K Curtis for J Conlon (66).<\/p>\n
Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All-Ireland SFC Round 2B: Derry 1-20 Meath 1-24 Meath were highly impressive as they booked their place in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17769,110979,42,14610,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-498552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-derry-gaa","tag-football-championship","tag-headlines","tag-meath-gaa","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498552","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=498552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}