Disappointment evident amongst Meath officials

There was an air of profound disappointment amongst Meath minor officials at St Loman"s, Mullingar on Saturday after the Royal County, who won the All-Ireland MHC B in fine style 12 months ago at the expense of Kildare, had made a tame exit at the semi-final stage of the 2008 competition. Minor Committee chairman Ultan Fitzpatrick was just one of those disappointed officials, but he was in good company as Hurling Development Committee chairman TJ reilly was also there. The two respected officials witnessed a low kay Meath performance on this occasion. Also struggling to deal with the outcome was team manager Paul Reilly who has done so much over the past few years to promote and improve the fortunes of hurling at under-age level in the Royal County. The venue was decided by the toss of a coin by Croke Park officials on Saturday morning when it became evident that O"Connor Park, Tullamore was unplayable. It came to a choice between Navan (Pairc Tailteann) and Mullingar (Cusack Park) and while Westmeath won the toss, Meath officials were a little puzzled that the game was then switched to St Loman"s. 'I have no problem with St Loman"s as a venue, but it was my understanding that the game would be played at either Pairc Tailteann or Cusack Park and then we ended up at St Loman"s,' explained a somewhat bemused Reilly. While he struggled to make sense of the result, he had plenty to say about other related matters and also suggested that he wouldn"t continue in the role of manager for next year. Making the result even more unpalatable was the fact that Meath had already dispensed a 13-point drubbing to Westmeath in the opening round of the Leinster MHC round-robin series at Pairc Tailteann scarcely four months ago. On that occasion, Meath recorded a 3-11 to 0-7 victory over their neighbours on the way to the Leinster MHC quarter-final which included a fantastic victory over Laois in a game that was played in Clane on a Tuesday night following some confusion over the venue for the original fixture. 'Where can you start after a performance like that, we beat Westmeath comfortably the last time we played them, a few months ago, but I can"t blame anyone else for the defeat, Westmeath were worthy winners there today,' stated Reilly. 'We can"t even complain about the pitch, it was in excellent condition for hurling and is a credit to the local officials, although I was bit surprised that we ended up here. 'Basically, we never turned up for the first-half, we weren"t helped by the preparations this morning, it wasn"t ideal, but we can"t use that as an excuse either, the players just didn"t perform and that"s why we lost. 'We were out of it at midfield for too long and we gave away to many easy frees, on the positive side, we picked it up a little in the second-half, but it wasn"t enough to rescue the situation,' he added. Despite the difficulties surrounding the arrangements for the game, which were brought about by the weather, Reilly was also quick to praise Westmeath for the way they played. 'I couldn"t fault Westmeath"s performance, they were facing a big test and they came through it with flying colours and deserved to win on the day. 'I also can"t find any fault with the players I had out there in Meath jerseys, they gave their best on the day and we just came up short,' he concluded.