"We should have drove on in the second-half but we didn't"

Meath manager, Shane McCormack watched on as his side fell to a third consecutive heavy defeat against Kerry in Ashbourne on Sunday afternoon. After the contest, he spoke to the press and made no excuses for his player's poor performance on the day, writes Tom Gannon.

"We wanted a performance today and we didn't get one, It's very disappointing. We were against the wind in the first half and we were six points down. We should have drove on in the second-half but we didn't. When Kerry get ahead and build up a lead, it's very hard to get them back. No excuses, we just didn't turn up today."

Meath showed promise in the early exchanges of the game, and McCormack was disappointed that his players didn't continue to stick to the plan set out him and his management team.

"We stuck to a game plan in the first half and I'm disappointed that we didn't continue that in the second half. They got ahead of us and kept their foot down. We needed to get scores early in the second half, instead of that, Kerry got them, and all of a sudden it was game over."

Meath have one more game in the league against Cork and McCormack says his side will work very hard over the next week to try and get a performance against the Rebels.

"We've another game left against Cork next week and we'll go back to the drawing board this week. We're playing different players in different positions and playing different game plans and we've one more game now. All we can do is work hard and try and get a performance next week against Cork."

Centre-back Mary Kate Lynch was very disappointed in the way she and her teammates performed on the day. Even though Meath had a promising first quarter, Lynch pointed towards 'silly errors' as contributing factors in Meath's downfall on the day.

"We are very disappointed. I feel in the first 15 minutes we looked like we were holding our own against the wind. We were getting out quite well and covering back. We were still within reach at half-time but the second-half did not pan out for us at all. There were some silly errors in terms of dropping balls and handling errors. We have to look at tidying them up and fixing them."

Lynch had the extremely difficult task of marking Kerry's top-class forward Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh. Ní Mhuircheartaigh showed how lethal she can be by securing eight points. Lynch admitted that it can be very hard to know how to handle Ní Mhuircheartaigh when she is in that vein of form.

"She is a brilliant footballer. It can be hard to know at times whether to push out with her or sit. I have had to mark her a few times now at this stage. She can take shots from anywhere. Every time we play them it's a difficult task to keep a lid on Louise."

While there is still one game left in the league against Cork, Lynch says she is looking forward to championship preparation and ensuring that those errors that have been costly over the last couple of games are fixed in time for the Leinster championship.

"We play Cork next week and it is another home game for us. We have to tidy up those errors, bring a big performance, and finish on a high. We are safe in Div 1. I suppose that is always the task, you don't want to get relegated. The fact that we are still safe is a positive. After that, it's all about focusing on the championship and making sure those errors are fixed. I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks in terms of preparing for the championship," concluded the Summerhill player.