Published: Thursday, 18th March, 2010 9:01am

Royal County give up football for Lent

Tipperary 1-9 Meath 0-10

Stephen Bray challenges for possession ahead of a posse of Tipperary players at Semple Stadium on Sunday.

The purgatory of lent continued at Thurles on Sunday where Meath's apparent abstinence from football reached a new low following their NFL Div 2 defeat by Tipperary.

After a dire performance against Westmeath and unconvincing displays against Armagh and Down, Meath's Lenten sacrifice of NFL points continued unabated as Tipperary fully deserved their victory.

The game hinged on a strange refereeing decision by Kerry official Tom Lynch when he awarded Meath a free out in the 55th minute, but then changed his mind and handed the hosts a penalty.

Just why he awarded the spot kick is anyone's guess. Peter Acheson appeared to over-carry the ball when surrounded by several Meath players and Lynch confirmed that by signalling for a free out.

However, he then moved to the 13-metre line and spread his arms to signal a penalty, much to the chagrin of the Meath players. Barry Grogan brilliantly tucked the penalty beyond Paddy O'Rourke to give Tipperary a 1-8 to 0-7 advantage.

Despite the injustice of the penalty, Meath can have no complaints about the result. They were simply not good enough and once again displayed far too many inadequacies for a side that reached the All-Ireland SFC semi-final last year.

Ever since Eamonn O'Brien took over as coach from Colm Coyle he has always praised his players' heart, spirit and commitment, but those attributes were in very short supply at Semple Stadium.

Seamus Kenny, Mickey Burke, Nigel Crawford, Paddy O'Rourke and Niall McKeigue in the second-half had decent outings, while substitutes Shane O'Rourke and Peadar Byrne had a positive influence towards the end.

However, Meath were rudderless. They appeared bereft of any decent game plan and when the long ball into Joe Sheridan in the first-half didn't work the response was to replace him with the hard-working Ollie Lewis.

Meath ended up with too many soldiers and not a general in sight willing to take control of the game and make the big decisions.

Several decent attacking moves broke down because of poor decision-making. Wrong options were taken and eight wides were kicked.

Eight efforts off target isn't abnormally high, but many of the opportunities were very scorable and Meath never looked comfortable with only Cian Ward looking to take the big scores.

There was no urgency about the play. Many passes were directed backwards and when Meath were on the attack, the moves frequently broke down because of poor passing or a lack of pace in attack.

That lack of pace up front made Tipperary's task a lot easier. They were rarely stretched and coped quite comfortably with everything that was thrown at them.

When Tipperary did launch attacks they were very productive with Grogan, Philip Austin and Brian Coen impressing against a Meath defence that still has problems at full-back and centre-back.

Even when Meath were on the precipice of defeat, they didn't show that traditional Royal power of recovery. One supporter remarked that when Meath of old were down by four points with six minutes remaining, they would end up winning by five. Not this time.

Instead the Meath response to trailing in the final quarter was timid. There was a distinct lack of camaraderie on the field and there was never the sense that the visitors could launch a comeback.

It is becoming repetitive, but Meath are proving to be incapable of launching sustained passages of pressure. It took them 25 minutes to find their first score from play and while six of the nine scores came from play that return isn't good enough against the likes of Tipperary.

There is no doubting that Tipperary are an improving side having gained promotion in successive years, but they should be a team that Meath are capable of beating.

Meath rarely looked set for victory despite a close-range free from Cian Ward giving them a third minute lead. Tipperary took over after that with a sublime sideline from Grogan opening their account.

With a decent wind at their backs Tipperary pushed on with Austin (two) and frees from Grogan and Conor Sweeney boosting them to a 0-5 to 0-1 lead. All Meath could muster was a Sheridan shot that was well saved by Paul Fitzgerald.

After Anthony Moyles had carelessly surrendered possession Eoghan Harrington was harshly adjudged to have fouled Sweeney and Grogan duly put five points between the sides.

Meath eventually found their scoring boots with Shane McAnarney pointing on the run before Cian Ward and Stephen Bray kicked great scores either side of a goal effort by the O'Mahonys man that hit Ciaran McDonald on the back.

A careless foul by Burke on Grogan allowed Tipperary take a 0-7 to 0-4 interval lead, but Meath would still have fancied their chances with the wind in their favour for the second-half.

Tipperary had a penalty appeal turned down immediately after the restart when Harrington looked to have fouled Austin. Meath countered with Cian Ward closing the deficit.

McAnarney fouled Grogan which restore Tipperary's three-point cushion, but when Cian Ward and Shane O'Rourke pointed to narrow the gap to 0-7 to 0-8 at the end of the third-quarter Meath looked capable of kicking on.

Instead they got a kick in the teeth with the poor penalty decision and never recovered.

Grogan's penalty was followed by a Coen point and although Meath closed the gap to two points through Byrne, O'Rourke and Ward, they never looked like getting in for the goal that would have kept their promotion hopes alive.

Tipperary - P Fitzgerald; C McDonald, N Curran, P Codd; C Aylward, R Costigan, C McGrath; G Hannigan, S Grogan; P Acheson, P Austin (0-2), B Mulvihill; C Sweeney (0-1, free), B Coen (0-1), B Grogan (1-5, 1-0 penalty, four frees, one sideline). Subs - S Hahessy for Sweeney half-time, J Cagney for Mulvihill 51 mins, A Rockett for S Grogan 57m, S Carey for Austin 63m, B O'Dwyer for Coen 68m.

Meath - P O'Rourke; E Harrington, N McKeigue, C O'Connor; S Kenny, M Burke, A Moyles; N Crawford, M Ward; S McAnarney (0-1), C Ward (0-5, one free, one sideline), J Queeney; D Bray, J Sheridan, S Bray (0-1). Subs - O Lewis for Sheridan half-time, S O'Rourke (0-2) for Queeney 48 mins, P Byrne (0-1) for McAnarney 55m, N Mooney for D Bray 70m.

Referee - Tom Lynch (Kerry).