Boss Bulfin happy to win a ‘different sort of game’

While Sunday's victory over Sligo was a little more laboured than he would have liked Meath manager Seoirse Bulfin was pleased to see another side of his team’s abilities.

From the silky, impressive second-half showing against Wicklow Meath had to show another side of their character in Markievicz Park as the determined hosts pushed the Royals to their limits.

Being able to prove they can dig deep and win the ugly games is something that will have pleased Bulfin and he admitted after Sunday's win that he was happy to get out of the Markievich Park with two more NHL Div 2B points in the bag.

"That was a different sort of game there today compared to last week, we got into our stride in the second-half last week (against Wicklow) and played a lot more open, silky hurling, whereas it was all about digging out the result today, particularly after the start we had to the second-half when we were playing with the breeze," said Bulfin.

"15 minutes into that second-half we were down 1-12 to 0-14 points and we had to see what the lads were made of at that stage and to be fair they really stood up and they battled awful hard.

"We outscored Sligo by eight points to one from there on in and that was even when we were down a man (after Kyle Donnelly's red card).

"All in all we are going out of here with two points in the bag so we are please with that."

Bulfin admitted that he wasn't surprised by the challenge put up by Sligo, but he did admit that disciplinary issues on the field have to be tidied up if Meath are to remain on course for promotion back to Div 2A.

The Meath manager referenced Sligo side Easkey's run to the All-Ireland Club JHC final as a source of inspiration for the county and he also paid tribute to the excellence and importance of Padraig O'Hanrahan who scored 15 of Meath's 22 points.

"Easkey had a really good run over the winter and they ran Ballygiblin awful close in the All-Ireland Club final, so we knew we were going to have a huge task today," he said.

"Particularly when a team loses in the first round of the league there is always a backlash and we expected that and got that today.

"We knew we weren't going to get it handy today, we knew we were going to have a huge battle on our hands.

"Our panel is being tested at the moment, we are down bodies. Injuries are things you can't really account for, but discipline and sendings off are within our control and that is something we will have to tidy up because it is hard enough to come to places like Sligo to get results with 15 players and it's doubly difficult when you are down a man.

"Podge (O'Hanrahan) is a quality player both from play and from frees. You could see how important it was for us to keep that scoreboard ticking.

"Off the top of my head he missed one free, in league hurling converting your frees is vital. They missed a few at vital stages, it just didn't happen for them today, but for us it is great to have someone like Podge who is so consistent with his frees."

With so many players missing for a variety of reasons last Sunday Bulfin is hopeful he'll have a full panel to choose from for what he expects will be a very tough challenge against unbeaten Donegal in Navan next Sunday.

The Meath manager is eyeing an improvement on Sunday's performance and he hopes that the Meath supporters will get out in numbers this weekend to support the team.

"Seanie (Geraghty) split his finger last week against Wicklow and he got three or four stitches which opened again on Thursday night, so he was ruled out for today, but I'm hoping he'll be back for next week," said Bulfin.

"Eamon is sick, he has a viral infection and is out for five to seven days. We are hoping we might see him training at the end of next week and we'll take it from there. We'll also have Damien Healy back for next week as well. Shane Brennan will be back around as well.

"The important thing is that we have 38 currently on the panel and I've always said it'll take 38 lads to step up, so when lads aren't around whether that's for suspension, injury or sickness, lads have to step up and they did that today.

"We had a lot of good performances. The likes of Martin Healy was good around the middle of the field and again the younger lads coming in did well. The likes of Paddy (Barnwell), Joey Cole, Tom Shine got game time today, they are the future for Meath hurling so it was nice to get them game time as well.

"Anytime you play two games in a week and win your first two league games you are going to get great confidence.

"The important thing for me is that they were two different type of wins. We had to really dig out the result today, whereas we finished the game strong last week and it was a bit more relaxing.

"The lads really needed to dig in today and dig out that result and they did that. There is great confidence to be taken from that, it's great.

"We certainly didn't have two back-to-back wins competitively last year, so it is great to have that this year.

"We will have a huge battle next week against a Donegal side who also have two wins from two and they went to London and had a very good win there today, so there will be huge pressure coming from Donegal next Sunday," warned the Meath boss.