‘We gave the opposition too much of a head start and we couldn’t claw it back’

NHL DIV 2 REACTION Greville hoping for reaction from remaining games

Meath hurling manager Johnny Greville watched on as his side, who were 2/9 favourites with the bookies, got turned over by a hungry Derry outfit in their NHL Div 2 clash at Celtic Park on Saturday last, writes Tom Gannon.

Speaking to the Meath Chronicle after the game, there were some aspects of the performance that the Westmeath native was pleased with, however, he was critical of the Royals first-half display on Saturday.

Firstly though, Greville gave an update on Daire Shine who picked up a nasty head injury in the closing stages of Saturday's contest.

"Daire Shine picked up a bad injury as a result of a questionable challenge and the referee did the right thing. He has a nasty gash on the side of his head and he will be in hospital up here for the night. It is not a nice thing to see, but these things happen. He is a great young fella and we will hopefully have him back up and running in the not-so-distant future."

Greville pointed to Meath giving Derry too much of a head start in the first-half as the main reason why the Royals suffered the three-point defeat.

"We gave the opposition too much of a head start today in the first-half and we couldn't claw it back. We can't afford to give teams a seven or eight-point head start. We kept going in the second-half. but we couldn't bridge that three-point gap."

There were various points in the contest where Meath looked like they were getting the upperhand, but the Ulster side always seemed to gain back momentum at crucial stages.

"Momentum was crucial and it changed at various stages. When we did get going at times maybe lads relaxed a bit too much and then Derry got back into it very quickly. I still maintain that if we were a bit closer at half-time, it might of changed things a bit. It is a learning curve for the lads and we can't allow that to happen again. We just have to get back up on the horse and go again."

Meath have two games remaining in the NHL Div 2. A refixed game against Down before a clash with Kildare. Greville is hoping he can get a response from his lads and is also optimistic about getting a few players back off the physio table.

"Down and Kildare are the real standard bearers in the division at the moment. They are two home games for us so we will be hoping that we will get a response from the lads and we might be able to get a few lads back for those games who have been sidelined for injury which would help us push on."

Previously, Greville had spoken about a three year plan to get Meath Hurling competitive once more. On Saturday, he spoke about his desire to pick up results along that journey.

"There is a wider picture at play in terms of how we are trying to build the team, but you would like to get wins along the way too. We expected today to perform a lot better than we did in the first-half. The second-half was pleasing but the result is ultimately important."

Greville was very keen to praise some of the younger members of the Meath set-up for the efforts and in particular, the Meath manager was very impressed with Kilmessan's Lorcan Byrne.

"I did think some of the young lads performed very well today. Young Lorcan Byrne was outstanding again this week. Lorcan is only out of u-20 and he is showing great energy, Lorcan's clubmate, Kris Gorman is motoring well too. These lads are top players. The other side of it is, I brought on Mickey Burke there at the end who has fantastic experience and my job is essentially to blend that mix together and get the best out of it." said Greville

"Our long-term goal is to maintain our status in this division but also to build a squad of players that will be sustainable for the future. However, we do want to pick up a few wins along the way as well."