‘We can’t be affording to concede four goals in a game’

Huddled in the relatively new shiny corridors of power in McGovern Park, Ruislip last Sunday, Seoirse Bulfin gathered his trusted lieutenants to debrief on where it all went wrong for the Meath hurlers in their bid to topple London in the Christy Ring Cup.

Excuses were offered, considered and accepted, but the general consensus was that Meath threw it away. Threw the opportunity to make it two wins from two in the third tier competition and put themselves in pole position to qualify for the final.

This was a huge missed opportunity and a frustrating defeat. Injuries to in-form players at key times, rare goalkeeping errors, nervous moments in defence, uncharacteristic waywardness from frees - if it wasn't for bad luck Meath would have had no luck at all.

Today, however, they have a chance to get back on course when they play Derry at Owenbeg.

Against London last week, Meath started poorly, shipping 1-1 inside 100 seconds. Rallied well to lead before half-time, lead by four at the three-quarters stage, but were then outscored 0-5 to 1-8 in the closing stages.

Meath might as well have been still on the bus from their Cricklewood base when the game started as London blitzed them with a goal from Conor O'Carroll.

The early indications of the ill-luck were obvious in that goal. Charlie Ennis made a magnificent save to originally deny O'Connor, but the ball rebounded to the St Gabriel's player's feet and he pulled first time to the net.

Once they settled Meath played some brilliant hurling. Points from Jack Regan, James Kelly, Nicky Potterton and late in the game from Damien Healy and James Toher lit up the occasion, they scored 1-22 from play, but in between they conceded 4-9 - you'll win nothing conceding four goals.

And those goals were preventable!

It's easy to point the finger of blame at one individual when sloppy goals are conceded, but the collective have to take responsibility for Meath's shortcomings.

Ennis made a brilliant save for the first goal, but the break fell kindly. The defence were marked absent as Sean Glynn cut through to set up Niall Broderick for London's second which gave the 'keeper no chance.

The third, and killer, goal was an unchallenged long delivery that dropped tantalisingly in the square. Ennis took the safe option to bat the trouble away, but the clearance fell to Dylan Dawson who made no mistake.

The fourth goal was from a similar long ball. This time no one took control in the Meath rearguard. Hurls were stuck in the air more in hope of getting a touch than anything else and it was Fiachra O'Keeffe who wheeled away in celebration, although only the Lord (and the owner of the hurl) knows whose stick got the last touch.

If two of those sloppy goals gave been prevented, if two of the five missed frees had been converted, if Ger Dwane hadn't picked up a head injury that forced him out of the action and off the London danger man....if, if, if.

After their confab the management team dispersed and Bulfin spoke to the Meath Chronicle, clearly disappointed with the outcome.

"We were very flat starting, sometimes that happens. I'm not making any excuses, the travel didn't help. They started like a house on fire, they were zipping everywhere," explained the Meath manager.

"We knew they would come at us hard early on, but for some reason we just didn't come out of the traps, but yet by half-time we were back in control of the game, 2-7 to 0-13.

"We missed a good few chances in that first-half as well, but we were in a decent position at the break and again in the second-half we were in a decent position to go four up.

"However when you concede four goals you are always going to leave the opposition in the game.

"There is more than Charlie (Ennis) involved in conceding goals. I played in goals long enough to know that some of those high dropping balls are difficult to deal with. They are 50-50 balls with a full-back and a full-forward in on top of you, they're not the easiest to defend.

"We could have done better and we will have to do better going forward. We can't be affording to concede four goals in a game.

"Charlie has been very, very good for us all year and again today he came up with some big saves at vital times. Ultimately you're not going to keep every ball out, so we are just going to have to do better collectively defensively.

"You saw his (Jack Regan) performance last week against Mayo when he was exceptionally good and hardly missed a free. Who'd be a freetaker?

"Jack Regan got us out of plenty of holes down through the years and long before I was here, and I'm sure he'll do it again in the future.

"You always back a lad to hit the frees. It didn't go his way today, but I'm sure he'll bounce back again next week.

"We knew coming over we were going to get a massive performance from London because if they had lost today their chances of progressing would have been slim.

"After playing them here in the league we knew they were very good hurlers, well able to hurl and use the ball.

"What's very disappointing is the fact that we scored 1-24 and still lost the game.

"Ultimately goals win matches and when you concede four goals you'll always be under pressure. Three of the four goals were avoidable, a bit sloppy from our point of view.

"We are bitterly disappointed, but we don't have any time to dwell on it, we have to recover tomorrow night, play a bit of a game on Tuesday night and head for Derry next week."

If a few small things had gone Meath's way they might have been recounting a very positive display, but slim margins make huge differences and while there was obvious disappointment Bulfin took heart from the high scoring return and the strong performance in the second and third quarters.

"It has to be very positive to score 1-24, but the huge negative is when you concede four goals. You will struggle to win matches when you concede four goals," he said.

"We have to regroup now. That is done and dusted. There is no point dwelling on it for too long. The management team will have a look at it. we will pick out a few negatives and positives and see where we can improve.

"We will go to Owenbeg next week and we'll need a big performance up there.

"The lads have done that all year, they have shown a great capacity to play really good hurling in spells. If I knew the answer to that (finding consistency) we might be able to do it a bit more throughout the year.

"There were patches where we hurled very well and got some good scores. It happened in that second-quarter and 17 minutes into the second-half we were four points and then conceded a sloppy goal.

"That left the door open for London and they smelt blood at that stage and went ahead and took their chances.

"They had their homework done from the last day. They sat a man very deep in front of Eamon (O Donnchadha). When he did get the ball he was very far out on the wing, so his impact was probably limited compared to other games.

"That's the way it is. You have to win your own possession and try to get on the ball and make something happen. To be fair he got a couple of scores today, but he didn't have the impact we'd have liked him to have."

Defeat leaves Meath without a safety line ahead of next Saturday's trip to Owenbeg to take on Derry who hammered Sligo. Then after that Meath will take on high-flying Tyrone in Navan before travelling again to Sligo.

"It is an exceptionally competitive group. Mayo were beaten by Tyrone yesterday. People will take points off each other and it will happen again with some funny results over the next three rounds.

"That's the nature and beauty of this competition. Everyone starting out has a chance of getting to the final or being relegated, that's what makes it interesting," concluded the Meath manager.