O’Dowd is relieved to hurdle tricky test
THE waiting can be the worst part and in Meath’s case that was 10 weeks since they secured their NFL Division 2 status with a win against Laois.
Louth, on the other hand, had been much more active, with a NFL Division 4 Final against Antrim and an opening championship encounter against Carlow.
‘You are kind of waiting for June 12th for a long time and there is a lot of a build-up to it,’ a relieved Mick O’Dowd said after see his side booked a Leinster semi-final date with All-Ireland champions Dublin.
‘We suffered a number of injuries along the way which wasn’t helpful, but we had prepared well and 20 points is a good score, even if I was disappointed with some of our shooting.
‘In the first half I thought we were in control at the back - Louth didn’t really create a goal chance.
‘We had a couple of chances at the other end which we rushed a bit. In fairness to Louth, they did come back in the second half when they brought on a few subs. Donnacha Tobin was a big loss at centre back when he went off injured.
‘I think we just lost a bit of our shape when Donnacha went off - we had a nice structure there in the first half.
‘After conceding the goal we responded well though.’
While Meath looked far superior they couldn’t quite shake off the plucky Louth men and the latter stages were nervous times for the Royals who should have been long out of sight.
‘You always are anxious,’ O’Dowd continued. ‘The last 10 minutes of championship football, it’s a dangerous time.
‘I thought we stayed reasonably calm, won a couple of good balls, a couple of frees and showed a bit of maturity which we didn’t do against Westmeath last year,’ he said.
O’Dowd doesn’t expect injured trio Conor McGill, James McEntee and Brian Power to have recovered from injuries in time to face the mighty Dubs in two weeks’ time.
‘Dublin are the benchmark for everyone and that is what we are getting ready for now,’ O’Dowd concluded.