O'Rourke refusing to give up on promotion dream ahead of Limerick challenge

There's an appalling vista looming following Sunday's NFL Div 2 loss to Louth at Pairc Tailteann.

The prospect of playing Tailteann Cup football in the summer, or even worse, relegation to Div 3 has come into Meath's rearview mirror after they slumped to a second successive loss in the league.

After promising victories over Cork and Clare in their opening two games Meath were looking upwards and at a possible shot at promotion. Now, however, they are looking nervously over their shoulders off the back of defeats by Derry and Louth.

While Meath were outgunned and outplayed by Derry a couple of weeks ago in Owenbeg they were partly creators of their own downfall against Louth, although the visitors were assisted by a harsh decision to issue a straight red card to Meath defender Harry O'Higgins in the 24th minute.

Despite losing O'Higgins and playing most of the game with just 14 men, Meath looked in a good spot at the end of the third quarter as Donal Keogan's goal boosted them to a 1-11 to 0-9 lead, but then disaster struck when Jack O'Connor's attempt to switch the point of attack was intercepted by Craig Lennon and the Louth sub raced clear towards an empty goal where he was caught by the Adam O'Neill, but Lennon regained his composure and finished to the net.

Meath only managed one further point in the final quarter (a Mathew Costello free) and now they stand in fifth place, level on four points with Cork and Louth who are both above them on scoring difference, but Colm O'Rourke isn't giving up on a promotion battle just yet.

"Well there are still three games and three wins to be got so we are not giving up on anything at this stage," he told the press in the superb new media room under the stand in Pairc Tailteann.

"We will take it one game at a time and prepare well for Limerick. There were a lot of good things in the game from our perspective, we will look at the positives and see where we can improve.

"I think Meath people would be happy with the effort, but not the result. There is potential, there are a lot of good young players a lot of them played well today so I wouldn’t give up on anything yet.

"It was disappointing considering we had made such a bright start to the game. "Despite being down a man we ended up in a very strong position with 15 minutes to go.

"We had worked really hard to get back into it and I thought at that stage the game was under control, we were five up but it just slipped away, I suppose the goal was a huge blow at that stage of the game.

"It was one of those balls that went astray. We have to pick ourselves up now and there is no use in crying over it and look forward to next week in Limerick."

It was a real Jekyll and Hyde performance from Meath. When they were at it and playing well they were exceptional, but when their levels dipped they lost a bit of shape and concentration which allowed Louth get back into the game.

The dismissal of O'Higgins proved hugely influential as Meath had to produce a monumental performance to go from trailing at half-time to taking a five point lead at the end of the third quarter.

Such hard work drained the Meath legs in the final quarter and Louth did enough as they took their chances and claimed the win.

"The momentum of the game had changed a good bit following the sending off of Harry (O'Higgins)," said O'Rourke.

"After scoring the opening four points we missed quite a few easy chances after that, maybe to push it out a bit more but Louth had plenty of chances as well. They kicked a few bad wides and we had a few narrow scrapes with goal chances as well.

"It wasn’t as if we were dominating the game. Louth had come right into it and they dominated the last 10 minutes before half-time.

"We can have no complaints. Louth got a series of good points from play when they needed them most which was a feature of the game.

"When Louth needed points they were able to get them from long range in the second half despite the fact that it looked as if Meath had the game largely under control. With 15 to go we were in a very healthy position.

"It (the red card) seemed a surprise to everyone, players on the field, management and supporters, it was an unusually long decision making process to begin with.

"I didn’t think he was even going to show him a yellow card, it was an awkward enough challenge, maybe he saw something we didn’t see, but that is life and we must get on with it.

"The lads put in a huge effort in the third quarter to wrestle back control of the game. We went from a point down to five up, looked to be playing comfortably but you could see at the end the hard work that it took for everybody to compensate for the extra man meant that a lot of our players were beginning to get very, very tired at the end.

"Despite the fact that subs were going on, there were a number of players who had put in massive efforts who were really getting into the red zone at that stage."

One ongoing concern for the manager and his coaching team is Meath's propensity to go long periods without overly troubling the scoreboard.

After their bright start on Sunday they then went 31 minutes with one one point to show for their efforts. They failed to score from play in the final quarter when they surrendered a five point lead and lost by three.

Those barren patches are something O'Rourke highlighted that need addressing, but he is not pushing the panic button and instead focused on the positives such as having Jack Flynn, Mathew Costello and Shane Walsh back from injury, while some of the younger players also enjoyed decent outings.

"We are going long stretches without a score which is worrying, I thought we created a lot more scoring chances today than we did even against Clare," said the Meath boss.

"Our creation of chances was a lot better today but obviously we need to get up to a much higher score, if we could get about 1-15 in games we would win most of them. We are just not getting enough at the moment.

"It's something that's obviously worrying (barren scoring spells). I thought that we created a lot more scoring chances today than we did maybe even against Clare, even though we won that game.

"I thought our creation of chances was a lot better today. Obviously we need to get up to a much higher score. I think if we could get up to 1-15 or 1-16 in every game we probably would win most of them. We're just not getting enough at the moment.

"There's no doubt about it, they (Flynn, Costello and Walsh) gave a huge impetus to the team.

"The great thing about those lads is that their best days are yet to come. They're only going to get better and better with playing.

"Adam O'Neill as well at the back I thought was exceptional and again, he's only after playing a few games. These players will all get better.

"If we could add in a lot more players playing at that level, we certainly would have the potential to go places but they're working very hard and I'm very happy with them.

"We do have a lot of young players, we do have a lot of players who haven't played too much together.

"The way things are going, from game to game to game, you don't actually get that much of a chance to do that much good training but it will come and we will get better. I have no doubt about that.

"The fundamentals of the team are improving all the time and I'd be very hopeful that in another couple of months that we would be significantly better," concluded the manager.