Meath 2-18 Antrim 1-20

Antrim interim manager Dominic McKinley has said that he was aware of the problem with the score during yesterday’s Christy Ring Cup final between Meath and Antrim.

Sean Quigley emerged as Meath’s Croke Park hero with a late 1-1 to secure a first ever Christy Ring success for the county but the controversy that followed over the scoreline overshadowed the achievement somewhat.

All members of the written press as well as members of the Antrim management team and their statistics expert believed that the game finished in a 2-17 to 1-20 draw.

A problem appears to have arisen when the scoreboard was incorrectly updated in the 63rd minute to account for Niall McKenna’s Antrim score which should have made it 1-20 to 1-15 for the Saffrons.

Speaking after the game McKinley said that he believed the wrong score prevailed towards the end of the match and revealed he made efforts to have it amended.

“I kept saying to Frankie Quinn (Antrim secretary), ‘there’s a score missing, there’s a score missing’. It needs to be sorted out. I was at the linesman too. He said, ‘I don’t know’. I said, ‘there’s a score missing’.

“In the end, you go back to the game and try to get involved in the game. The way it was, it was tense and tight and you never got involved (with the scoreboard) again. I honestly thought maybe they corrected it but I wasn’t sure.

“I kept saying to Gary O’Kane (Antrim selector) beside me, ‘we’re three up instead of two, we’re three up’. But he was saying, ‘no, it’s only two on the board’. I said, ‘no, it’s three’ because you’re following the game and you have a feeling for it.”

It’s understood that Antrim were given a copy of the match DVD by TG4 and intend to review it before deciding on their next move.

The CCCC have announced that they will meet on Tuesday to review the match.

It remains to be seen if Antrim will request a replay because, if it had ended in a draw, then extra-time would have followed.

“I don’t know,” said McKinley. “That’s up for other people to debate to be honest. At this moment in time, Meath have won it and good luck to them. If people want to assess that and make a judgement on it....

“Look, this is an All-Ireland final. For that there to happen, people need to take a long hard look at themselves.

“We’ll wait until we see what happens. I know the scoreboard was wrong all day, back and forward on different occasions. It should’t have happened at GAA headquarters I don’t think.”

It was a sour ending to a famous evening for Meath hurling as they came back from a nine-point deficit after 19 minutes and also trailed by 1-10 to 0-7 at half-time.

Neil Heffernan’s 1-1 early in the second-half reduced the gap to four points after 42 minutes and gave Meath hope that they could pull off a memorable win, securing their place in next year’s Leinster championship qualifier series of games.

Antrim reestablished a 1-18 to 1-12 lead with 15 minutes remaining but Meath dug deep and while debate raged about the actual scoreline in the closing stages, Meath players weren’t aware of any issue and fought hard for victory.

Quigley’s 70th minute goal was a crucial score as he latched onto Kevin Keena’s ball into space and struck to the net, following up with a crucial point that was recorded as the winning score.

Meath: S McCann; S Geraghty, D Donoghue, R Sherlock; S Brennan, D Healy, K Keoghan (0-2); S Heavey (0-1), S Morris; J Toher (0-5, 5f), J Keena (0-3), A Gannon (0-3); G McGowan, N Heffernan (1-1), S Clynch. Subs: K Keena (0-1) for Clynch 52, S Whitty for McGowan 55, S Quigley (1-1) for Heffernan 64.

Antrim: C O’Connell; M Burke, T McCloskey, S McCrory; O McFadden, N McAuley, C McKinley (0-1); E McCloskey (0-3), E Campbell (0-1); N McKenna (0-3), C Carson, J Connolly (0-4); C Johnston (1-2), J Dillon (0-1), C Clarke (0-5, 1f, 1 65). Subs: P Burke for M Burke 8, M Dudley for Dillon 48, F Donnelly for McFadden 61.

Referee: J O’Brien (Tipperary).