Tyrone wary of suffering Royal sting in the tail

THINGS look pretty grim in Meath right now. A first-ever championship defeat to neighbours Westmeath was compounded by the awful manner in which it came to pass, eight points up at half-time they conspired to lose it by four after conceding 2-8 in the final 20 minutes. For many, this result was merely symptomatic of a deeper-lying problem: Meath haven’t won a Leinster minor title since 2008, and only two since 1993 (the other in 2006). They haven’t won a Leinster Under 21 since 2001, and the only silver lining at senior level in the last 15 years came in 2010 – a Delaney Cup tainted by the furore surrounding Joe Sheridan’s injurytime winning goal over Louth. So what reason could there be to think they can go up to Omagh and beat a county crowned AllIreland champions three times since Meath last lifted Sam Maguire in 1999? Because, quite simply, that’s who Meath are as a football county. They will be hurting, they will low, but they will be angry too. And nobody likes those big, stubborn green Meath monsters when they’re angry. Mickey Harte is well aware of the danger a wounded Royal side will present in Healy Park today, saying he expects a ‘backlash’ from Mick O’Dowd’s side on their road to ‘redemption’. That’s probably just Mickey being Mickey, but at the same time he isn’t wrong. Meath are one of the proudest football counties on this island and they will not want the weight of that Westmeath defeat to follow them all the way through to next spring. They may well go down today against a side that ran All-Ireland contenders Donegal close in Ulster, but they will go down fighting. And at 5/2, with a little bit of luck, they could produce one final sting in the tail.