GAA: Royals and Lilywhites clash for a Leinster Football Final place

GAA fanatic Keith Merchant (@kmerchant3) shares his thoughts on Saturday night's football action between Meath and Kilare.

Meath v Kildare | Saturday 19:00 | Sky Sports 5

After last weekends disappointing result it's time to get back on the winning trail. Needless to say, I was sick as a dog to have been so close to a lovely weekend of profit but yet so far away.

As for Kilkenny, only scoring 1-4 from play is unheard of and TJ Reid couldn't have done much more by scoring 2-7 for the Man of Match award but Lee Chin of Wexford was a well-deserved winner.

Recent form

Kildare had a brilliant league campaign by getting promotion to Division 1 whereas Meath just fell short by missing out on promotion so both will be on a high coming into this.

Kildare and Meath both won their first round fixtures for the Championship and In Kildare’s case, they have the edge over Meath on league form though that's often thrown out come Championship time.

Meath have won their last two Championship matches against the Lilywhites but their overall head-to-head stats are inseparable.

The betting angle

I expect this to be a proper tight battle between two sides that can score high and looking to book a place in the final.

I will be advising Kildare -1 on the handicap at 5/4 (Paddy Power) as I would be disappointed if they couldn't win by 2-3 points and Kildare/Kildare on the Half-Time/Full-Time market at 15/8 (Paddy Power).