Another big obstacle negotiated

Meath minor football manager Pat Coyle is looking forward to the prospects of an All-Ireland MFC semi-final for his team against Ulster champions Tyrone following Saturday"s 2-9 to 0-10 victory over Tipperary at O"Moore Park, Porrtlaoise. The Royal County manager has brought his panel of players through three tough assignments since they lost to Tyrone in the Ulster MFL final replay at Breffni Park, Cavan last May. Seven days after Meath dumped Dublin out of the Leinster MFC at Parnell Park, they travelled to Cavan for that joust with the kingpins of Ulster football and were narrowly edged out. Victories over Longford, Offaly and Tipperary, a piece of merited silverware in the form of the Leinster title, and now they are ready to renew that rivalry in what should be a fantastic game of football. Coyle was playing down the prospects of an All-Ireland title in the immediate aftermath of Saturday"s victory and will continue to take it 'one game at a time' with his talented panel of players and selectors. 'We have a lot of important work to get through before we tackle the next assignment in the All-Ireland semi-final,' he commented. 'Make no mistake about it, that"s not a bad Tipperary team and they made us work very hard for our five-point victory, the Kerry manager warned me not to take them lightly and he was right,' added Coyle as he referred to a conversation with his counterpart from the Kingdom after they had beaten Tipperary in a Munster final replay. 'Tipperary came back at us very strongly in the last few minutes and we were fortunate to survive, although I thought we deserved to win, we closed them down successfully and that was important. 'We made a great start, we couldn"t have wished for any better, one of our tactics was to put Michael Newman in the full-forward line straight away and to get the ball in quickly. 'It was one of those things, it just worked out, we could try it again and maybe, nine times out of 10 it wouldn"t work, that"s the way it goes,' he said. The manager was also full of praise for the way the players were prepared to work hard for the hour. 'Everyone was prepared to put in the effort, the high ball worked a second time for Andrew Tormey"s goal, but we still have plenty of things that we need to work on for the next day. 'Andrew"s goal arrived at an opportune time for us and, maybe, Tipperary just lost their way for a little bit, but they came back at us again in the second-half. 'That"s not a problem for us, we will knuckle down and prepare for the next game, but we won"t look any further than that either, it will be great to get another rattle at Tyrone and see what happens, but we are definitely not afraid of anyone at this stage. Injuries posed some selection problems for the manager, but he was also happy that he had a strong bench to choose from. 'William Carry and Harrison Silke were injured today, but when you have players like Brian McGrane, Enda Nulty, Jake Regan, Sean Dalton, David Ryan and Paddy Gilsenan to come in, then it leaves it easier to make plans because they are all quality players. 'We"re probably just doing enough each day and if we can maintain that trend then none of us will be complaining.' There was also an opportunity for Coyle to meet a man from Tipperary who coached him when he was playing under-age football. 'It was nice to meet Billy Fogarty, a Tipperary man, after the game today, he used to coach me when I played under-age football in Kildare many years ago,' concluded the Curraha clubman.