McEntee admits Sligo will be tough
MEATH boss Andy McEntee says that although his side have the added advantage of playing at home on Saturday, they are not taking any chances with Sligo.
While a home draw was crucial in the bid to get back on track following Meath’s nine- point defeat by Kildare, McEntee admits that there was never going to be an easy game and whether Meath drew Longford, Laois or Derry he would have expected a similar challenge to the one he will get next Saturday against Sligo.
“I think all the teams that we could have got in the draw are likely to give you trouble if you are not in the right frame of mind,” he says.
“We have a home draw and that is as much as we could hope for.
“Any of the other three teams compared to Sligo, I don’t see a whole pile between them. I’d be afraid of each of them.
“I think saying we will still be playing into August would be a huge leap of faith.
“The truth of the matter is that if we don’t produce a good performance this weekend then we will get beaten,” he explains. The Leinster side were impressive over Louth in the Championship before being dominated by the Lilywhites with Meath looking lacklustre on the day.
McEntee was being credited with instilling a certain something that appeared to be missing over the last few years, but then Kildare happened.
“There were a lot of things that didn’t go right for us against Kildare. Some of it was under our control, but some of it wasn’t. It is the parts that were under our control that were the most disappointing,
“You have to try to make sure we do things better. We are still not at the level of consistency we are looking for, we need to know every time we go out that we can perform to a certain level, but unfortunately we didn’t do ourselves justice.”
That level of inconsistency has been the thorn in McEntee’s side since he took over. Just when everything appears to be sailing smoothly Meath suffer a horror show.
That trend has now continued into the summer with the good display against Louth followed by the grotesque one against Kildare.
“I genuinely feel that our players are capable of producing a certain type of performance every time they take to the pitch, it’s just a little bit inconsistent at the moment for whatever reason,” questioned McEntee.
“In championship matches expectation levels are heightened and they were heightened again after the Louth game, rightly or wrongly I don’t know.
“Maybe those expectations brought a little bit of extra pressure on the lads and maybe that effected them, I don’t know.”
After each of Meath’s dreadful performances in the league they bounced back impressively and while McEntee suggests there won’t be a knee- jerk reaction when it comes to team selection for the game against Sligo, he insists that he will pick a team to get the job done.
“Obviously we will be hoping to bounce back, but we will have to look at the reasons why these things are happening in the first place and then try to eliminate them,” said the Meath manager.
“It’s certainly not down to a lack of effort from the lads. Their work rate and application has been fantastic, it just seems to be too much hit and miss so we have to try to eliminate those possibilities as much as possible.
“We haven’t had knee- jerk reactions in the past, so I doubt that will be the case for next Saturday, where do you start and where do you stop?
“The Kildare game was one of those games where we probably only had four or five lads who could say in all honesty that they did the job that was asked of them, so it is hard to make wholesale changes, but we must do what we feel is best at the same time.”