Mayo defeated in national hurling league

National Hurling League Division Two

Meath 0-20 Mayo 1-12

MEATH survived a stirring second-half comeback by Mayo to claim the spoils at Adrian Freeman Memorial Park, Tooreen, on Saturday afternoon.

Aided by a strong first-half wind, Meath led 0-16 to 0-3 at the break and could have been further ahead, but the visitors fired 12 wides during the opening 35 minutes.

Meath made the brighter start in this relegation battle and points from Mark Leavy (two), Sean Doyle, Tom Shine (free) and Mikey Coyle mustered a 0-5 to 0-1 lead for the visitors after 12 minutes.

Ray Larkin’s Mayo tried their best to stay in touch during the first half but there was no stopping a rampant Meath, and Eoin Donegan’s awesome long-range point on 24 minutes was warmly greeted by the away supporters.

Trailing by 13 points at the interval, the hosts made a lively start to the second period courtesy of white-flagged efforts from Cormac Phillips (two frees), Eoin Delaney and Shane O’Brien.

Tom Shine produced a virtuoso performance for Meath and his point on 50 minutes helped keep a resurgent Mayo 11 points in arrears (0-19 to 0-8).

Mayo then almost netted a goal but Corey Scahill’s effort flew inches over the crossbar.

Ray Larkin’s troops set up an intriguing finale when Sean Kenny confidently dispatched a penalty with just one minute of normal time remaining.

However, Meath made sure of the vital victory when Tom Shine added his sixth and final free of the afternoon in stoppage time.