'A great performance to get over the line'

CHRISTY RING CUP REACTION Meath manager not losing sight of the challenges ahead despite magnificent win in Derry

Johnny Greville watched on as his Meath side got the better of Christy Ring Cup rivals Derry at Celtic Park on Saturday. The Westmeath native has overseen an incredible improvement in Meath after a tough opening round loss against London, writes Tom Gannon.

Meath got off to a fantastic start and two early goals courtesy of Mikey Cole inspired the Royals to an early seven-point lead. A flutter of late Derry points made for a very nervy finish, but Greville was delighted with how his side performed overall.

"We wanted to set out our stall early in the game and ensure we were on the front foot. Anytime you come up here, it's a difficult task and there was a good breeze out there. We used it to our advantage and Mikey (Cole) got two great goals early on. It got a bit tight at the end there but overall it was a great performance to get over the line."

Saturday was the second time this year that Meath visited Celtic Park, and the last outing was not as positive as Saturdays. Greville spoke about how much the team has changed and developed since that day and also detailed how he challenged his players to bring resilience and character into Saturday's clash.

"We have made 12 positional and personal changes from the game up here in the league. It was always going to be about the Championship and how we prepared for it. It was a must-win game today, I asked the lads before the match, are we going to see that Meath character and resilience? We certainly seen that grit out there and it's a testament to the lads. They give up a lot of time and we came up here yesterday evening and stayed up here. We are thankful to the Co board for providing that for us and giving us the platform to go out and perform today."

Meath have shown massive improvement since their first disastrous outing in round-one against London. They comfortably dispatched Tyrone last week and this week threw themselves right back into contention for the Christy Ring Cup with the win over Derry. Greville spoke about the work that is being done between these games.

"We learn from every game, we looked into the Tyrone game where we conceded two goals. We won that game well and we could have parked it and moved on but we looked into it in depth, and there were a few mistakes that we highlighted so they didn't happen against Derry."

Joint-captain, Simon Ennis was dropped from the starting 15 after he was part of a full back line that struggled in round-one. The Rathmolyon man made an appearance off the bench against Derry and had a significant impact.

"Simon (Ennis) had a point to prove and he is joint captain for a reason. He took not being involved last week on the chin and I thought he had an excellent game today when he was called upon."

London's draw against Wicklow on Saturday certainly gave Meath an additional boost in terms of the standings but Johnny Greville says that that result hasn't changed a lot in terms of his side's mindset.

"London's draw against Wicklow has not really changed anything for us. We had to win today and we have to win our last two games as well. Regardless of what other teams are doing, we have to perform and make sure that hunger and intensity are there. We will be going hard over the next couple of weeks and we'll look back on this game and pick out what we need to improve."