It was Friday night football under lights at Whitegates tonight and our Leinster Senior side welcomed County Meath side Ashbourne United to Wicklow. The Meath team had won one, drew one and lost one in their first three league games of the season while Rovers had just played the one, a 2-2 draw at home to Larkview FC. The away side drew first blood in the tenth minute with a rocket of a shot to the roof of the Rovers net from thirty five yards out. Neither side created a chance of note until the thirty second minute and it was Rovers who created and finished with a neat strike from Dylan Orr to level matters. Four minutes later Rovers were in front when Dylan Orr waltzed past three defenders before slotting home his second of the game to make it 2-1 to the home side. Unfortunately for Rovers they didn't hold on to the lead for long, in the forty first minute a clinical finish at the back post from the Meath men saw the sides go in at the break level at 2-2. On the balance of play in the first period it was probably a fair scoreline at the break. In the second half it was the away team who were again the quickest out of the traps when they hit the front on fifty three minutes. Two goals in a three minute spell around the hour mark from Ashbourne put the game to bed. Even at 5-2 to Rovers credit they kept going in the hope of turning it around. Rovers were denied a stone wall penalty when Ciaran McGettigan was taken down in the area by the keeper. With twenty minutes left Ciaran McGettigan screwed an effort wide of the right hand post and the same player was unlucky on seventy seven minutes to see a powerful drive go just the wrong side of the post. McGettigan was getting closer and with five minutes remaining he got a deserved goal, it was a 50/50 race between him and the keeper which Ciaran won and finished off with a delicate lob over the keeper into the net. The final whistle came and it ended with Ashbourne winning 5-3. It was a fairly even game up until the period where the Meath side hit three goals in a ten minute spell. The lads will rue giving away a couple of soft goals plus they were missing four regular starters which didn’t help matters. All they can do is put it behind them, put it right on the training ground and move on to their next game.