'There is absolute frustration'

ALL-IRELAND SFC REACTION Meath manager disappointed and expects a reaction next Sunday

There was no way of buttering it up. Meath were dreadful. They didn't get close to reaching the level of performance necessary to even get within Kerr's ass's roar Louth in Inniskeen on Saturday and manager Colm O'Rourke was at a loss to put his finger on where it had all gone so horribly wrong.

As he stood outside the back of the stand at the superb home of Inniskeen Grattans at Louth's designated home ground in Monaghan O'Rourke didn't even try to come up with an excuse - there were none, any attempts would have only served to paper over craters.

It would have been easy, and even understandable, had O'Rourke and his management let fly in anger at both half-time and full-time, but the manager insists that is not his way.

Maybe it was hard to direct anger in any one direction as the problems last Saturday seemed several fold - players, management and coaches all have to hold their collective hands up and say they got it wrong and simply weren't up to the required standard.

Undoubtedly Meath had a game plan last Saturday, but from the comfort of the well-appointed stand it looked non-existent. Maybe that had something to do with the pressure applied by Louth, maybe it was a lack of discipline from the Meath players to put the plan into practice - either way it didn't work.

So instead of anger there was sheer frustration etched on O'Rourke's face as he spoke to the assembled media after Saturday's first championship loss to Louth since 1975.

"There is absolute frustration. There's no doubt about that. Total frustration. We thought during the league that we had improved significantly in our defensive performance and we had been keeping teams down to low enough scores," said the Meath boss.

"We weren't giving away many goal chances in the league and the backs seemed to be well organised in that regard, but today we leaked goals at the wrong time and could have leaked more. So they are disappointed.

"I don't think angry would be the word to sum up how we feel. We don't really have any angry scenes in the dressing room, but they are a very disappointed group with themselves first of all.

"Louth are difficult to break down. They defend with players inside the 45 and it was very difficult, but we had worked hard on that. Every night in training we had scenes like that where we'd have the opposition all inside the 45 and we were able to break it down in training, but the real thing is different.

"Louth were very, very focused and they were very disciplined in their defending. It was only in the first quarter that we looked as if we were getting a bit of joy out of running at angles and then all of that dried up.

"The performance was very poor and we got the result from a very poor performance. No complaints Louth were very good, really out fought us.

"We had thought that we might have an edge in that regard and I think that Louth out thought us, out fought us, out worked us in the game, so no complaints very disappointing performance from our team.

"The first 15 or 20 minutes we looked as if we were going quite well and thought we largely controlled the early part of the game, but once they got the first goal the doubts crept into our team and they very much built on that so goals win games and they got them at the right time."

The morale of the team was dealt a devastating blow on Saturday morning when the news broke that vice-captain Mathew Costello's father Paul had sadly passed away, but O'Rourke distanced the performance from that news and refused to offer it as an excuse.

"It struck a very sombre note when we met today that Mat’s dad had just passed away. We said to him if he didn’t want to play not to come and that we completely understand, but he was insistent that he wanted to play and we accommodated that.

"I wouldn’t use it as an excuse, once the team went on the pitch they had to get on with it and unfortunately it didn’t work out very well in that regard.

"Again, they're young, inexperienced and there's going to be bad days on the way for them to develop as a team."

For all the negativity around the display it was really the 12-minute spell midway through the opening half that proved decisive and defensive errors were at the root of that.

Sam Mulroy was let ghost in behind the last line unchecked to score the first goal. Craig Lennon was afford time and space to run hard at the defence and then sell a dummy before finishing brilliantly for the second goal and the third goal came as the defenders fell asleep for the rebound off the upright and Lennon had all the time in the world to blast to the net.

Those goals were calamitous and the essential cause of Meath's downfall. Had they been avoided would the outcome been any different? Probably not, because Louth were the better team, but those goals gave Louth oxygen and they grew in confidence with each shot that hit the net.

"They had runners coming from deep that we had difficulty coping with in the first half. There were some defensive errors," admitted O'Rourke.

"The ball that hit the post, it was disappointing that there wasn't a couple of backs around to gather that ball, but the die had been cast at that stage they had worked themselves in for two very good goal chances. On the opposite side we weren't able to create goal chances."

System failures at both ends of the field!

And it isn't going to get any easier any time soon for Meath.

Next up for the Royals is the visit of the Kingdom of Kerry to Navan next Sunday and while last Saturday's defeat is hugely demoralising O'Rourke is confident that the Meath fighting spirit will illicit a positive response.

"It was demoralising, but there's always been a traditional defiance about Meath football and we talked about it in the dressing room after the match," said the manager.

"This game is over, it's up to the fellas now to put their shoulder to the wheel and as a group we have to try and do better next week.

"It's a game that a lot of people would say that we look like we could get a hiding and the other side of it is we look at it as an opportunity to improve.

"We'd like to have a bit more fighting spirit and a bit more defiance and a bit more character shown.

"It's a big ask for the fellas at this stage, but yet at the same time, who doesn't want to play against Kerry in Navan? It's a great opportunity for players. It's what every young fella should dream about.

"I know that everybody will be disappointed (with the loss to Louth), but there's none more disappointed than the players in the dressing room.

"Support can be fickle and we are urging patience all the time and people are saying we're not going anywhere. We are getting a bit better, but it may not appear like that. It's a long road."

With two huge games coming up against Kerry and Monaghan it was put to O'Rourke that Meath finished the game against Louth with a stronger team than the one that started, but O'Rourke didn't fully agree with that proposal.

He did suggest however, that there will be changes for the Kerry game and that some players will have to be rushed out of the treatment room and onto the pitch.

"I don't know about that (a stronger team at the end of the game), but it's well documented that we've had a lot of injury problems with a lot of players and we're trying to rush them back to fitness and some of them aren't quite ready, but needs must in this case. It's too early to tell. We have to look at injuries. We're getting together on Monday night and we'll see what the situation is at that stage.

"Hopefully some of the lads that played for a while today may be able to play for a bit longer next week," here's hoping for that, and a lot more.