Big improvements needed if Meath are to make an impact

IT took a while to find the Meath manager Andy McEntee on the Pairc Tailteann pitch after Sunday's Leinster SFC victory over Wicklow.

It wasn't that he was hiding from the media, but rather he was engulfed by young supporters eager for an autograph and a picture.

Such requests are always easily approved following a victory. Sometimes after a defeat the last place any manager wants to be is left on the field of battle, but McEntee was happy to smile for the supporters.

When it came to expressing a truer reflection of his feelings to the media McEntee was a little more candid and there was a sense he held back a little on what he really felt.

Despite the 10-point winning margin McEntee certainly wasn't happy with aspects of Meath's performance and while he admitted he'd have taken that winning margin if it was offered to him at breakfast he expected more from his side.

The low-key intensity of what should have been a red-hot championship encounter was missing and McEntee bemoaned that aspect of the performance.

"I thought we were only okay to be perfectly honest. I thought for a long period we didn’t inject the pace into the game that I would like us to be doing, but you cannot complain, if you offered me that this morning I would have taken it," said the manager.

"If you looked at the Laois – Wicklow game last week it was very similar. The lack of intensity? Maybe it was the way Wicklow was setting up.

"I think we were going at them, but I don’t think we were asking enough questions of them in the first-half and for long enough periods of the second half as well.

"Maybe that is the way they set up, but when you compare their physicality and fitness levels compared to where they were two years ago they have made huge progress I think."

The question was posed about scoring a goal after just nine seconds and the possibility that it placed Meath in a comfort zone far too early for the manager's liking.

One thing McEntee certainly wasn't pleased with was the concession of the late goal and he bore a real look of frustration when discussing that score.

So did the early goal upset the gameplan?

"Maybe, I don’t know, I’d love to get an early goal in every game. Someone else said that to me as well. Maybe deep down in your head this is going to be easier than we expected – and it wasn’t easy. Four points is all that was in it at half-time," recalled McEntee.

"I was very frustrated with their goal, that was disappointing. I don’t think it should have happened; it looked like we had packed up and gone home at that stage. It looked as if we switched off."

While clearly frustrated with many aspects on Meath's performance McEntee was happy with a number of individual performances and he admitted that entering the first round of the championship is always a step into the unknown.

The early goal settled any pre-match nerves and while it looked like a perfectly executed training ground routine McEntee certainly wasn't claiming any credit for it.

"You never know until you are in the middle of it where you are at. We prepared well, trained well, but until you are in the middle of a game, a championship game in particular, you never really know where you are at," he said.

"I would like to think that (the early goal) was all my doing but I think it just panned out that way.

"It is certainly a lot easier to go into the dressing room and say we have a lot of things to work on after that performance.

"I think it is fair to say that that performance won't be good enough in a semi-final.

"They got eight shots at goal in the first-half, I think that is too many. I think we got turned over maybe 11 times in our forward line, that’s too many.

"There were a lot of things today that if they happened against the really top teams you are going to get punished for. I think that is a fair statement, it wouldn’t be good enough the next day.

"I thought Robin Clarke did a very good job whether he was picking up Kenny or Darcy. I thought he had a solid game. You look at the Laois game last week and saw who did the damage and we probably held them relatively quiet.

The likes of Mathew (Costello) coming in was positive too. We also got championship experience into Jack Flynn, Jordan Muldoon, Jack O’Connor.

There are always positives and the real positive is that we are in the next round and have loads to work on."

Will Meath be able to improve sufficiently to make an impact in next week's Leinster SFC semi-final? McEntee admitted that Dublin are still the team to beat.

"I guess time will tell. Probably wishful thinking that Dublin have gone down the pecking order, I don’t know and you won’t know until you come up against them, they looked pretty decent last night to be fair to them," he said before reporting that Cathal Hickey had tweaked a hamstring in the first-half and that Padraic Harnan and Eamon Wallace are still a little bit off being ready in time for the semi-final.