McCarthy delighted with never-say-die spirit

THE thin line that exists between victory and defeat can sometimes be worlds apart.

How devastating a blow for Meath football it would have been had the young Royals bowed out of championship contention at the opening hurdle against Longford in Saturday’s Leinster u-20 FC quarter final at Pearse Park. Especially with everything that went on with last year’s squad.

The omens weren’t great going into this clash. Meath had lost all of their three games in the Development League while the venue had been anything but a happy hunting ground for the county at various levels in recent years.

Back in 2018 Andy McEntee’s seniors were humbled by the midlanders and much more recently Longford dealt a mortal blow to the minors’ aspirations.

So it was probably with a certain amount of trepidation that Meath took to the pitch for this outing and it showed, especially in the opening 20 minutes and for large portions of the second-half as well.

Not being able to call on the likes of injured duo David Bell and Oisin Martin was a blow as was the forced withdrawal of last year’s minor captain Liam Kelly.

Meath were out of sorts in the early stages and then when they eventually got motoring found it difficult to shift up the gears.

That they still managed to win and book a semi-final clash with Dublin suggests that they were doing something correct even if it is difficult to put it into words.

Maybe it was down to a never-say-die-attitude by the players who, despite playing through difficult spells throughout the game, kept going until the final whistle.

It was that type of application that was winning crucial matches for the county long before any of those involved against Longford were even born.

It took an unyielding spirit for Meath to respond after Longford had firmly seized the initiative and edged ahead in the five minutes of added time.

They somehow found the know-how and determination to respond with a brace of points and snatch a dramatic win.

The prize of still being in contention for provincial honours is huge, not only for morale but for the development of these young players who need to be exposed to as much top class fare as is possible.

There is no substitute for championship and only time will tell where last Saturday’s win will take Meath.

For sure there is massive room for improvement but the crucial part is that they have the opportunity to progress further.

Manager John McCarthy was almost stuck for words afterwards and the overriding emotion was one of relief, though the importance of the victory wasn’t lost on the former underage All-Ireland winner.

“We got out of jail there,” McCarthy admitted. “It was a roller coaster from start to finish. I was happy the way the first-half finished and thought we would kick on a bit after that. We had very little pattern or shape to our play in the second-half, the team play seemed to go out of it a little bit.

“The important thing was we were a point down with a couple of minutes to go and those lads dug in and got a result. I have been involved with many a team on days like this and you would inevitably come out the wrong side of the result. Things didn’t go well at times but they battled and there was a bit of good fortune, but you need that to win.”

The contribution off the bench was crucial, as McCarthy pointed out. “We got three points off the bench. Daragh Reilly came in and got two and Pearse Sheridan kicked a good point, set up by another sub Alan Bowden. There was a really good impact off the bench. The boys coming on energised us and maybe they should have been on a little bit earlier, that is something we will all have to look back on.”

McCarthy expressed himself happy with his team’s position as they recovered from an indifferent start to be a point in front at half-time.

“We were in a good place at that stage. We battled hard against the wind, got some really good scores, very efficient with the ball.

“We had nothing to show for our efforts in the opening 20 minutes but we were playing into a strong breeze and were only three points in arrears. Longford had some decent footballers, Jack Duggan kicked some lovely scores for them, worth the admission price alone.

“They scored 4-9 the last day against Wexford and we knew if we could keep them in sight we would be happy enough going in at half-time.

“We restarted with the opening two points of the second-half and then we just seemed to fall asleep for 20 minutes.

"That we didn’t push on after going three points clear at the start of the second-half when we had the advantage of the breeze would be a worry.

"We over complicated it, it is a simple game and there was space inside. The full-forward line was winning the ball and we were losing it out around the middle of the field, maybe a little match sharpness was missing.

"We were getting dispossessed, sloppy, but we can improve a lot from that, we will have to.”

McCarthy admitted that a similar performance wouldn’t be near good enough to trouble Dublin the next day.

“Dublin would be licking their lips watching that. We wouldn’t beat Dublin playing like that, that’s safe to say. Dublin played on Thursday night, they will have a couple more days recovery.

“However we had some very good individual performances. The most important thing was that nobody gave up. There was an opportunity there when things got tough for them to say, it’s not our day but they didn’t let that happen.

“They stood up to the challenge and battled on and got their reward at the finish,” concluded the manager.