THE meticulous nature of Meath's pre-match warm-up conducted by David Beggy was never repeated in a forgettable hour of careless football produced by Sean Boylan's men at Navan, yesterday.
Derry could never have imagined that it would be so easy to earn their first League points of the season. Considering the contrasting records of the sides so far this season, the opportunity seemed right for an unbeaten Meath team, admittedly without John McDermott, to end 17 years of League defeats by Derry.
Boylan used one word "terrible" to describe his team's performance. In fact, Meath's attack was so weak and unimaginative that many a supporter in the 5,000 crowd would surely have greeted the sight of Beggy entering the fray.
The day got progressively worse, resulting in the sending off of Meath's best midfielder, Nigel Nestor, for a foul on Johnny McBride with eight minutes remaining.
Nestor was himself the victim of a similarly nasty tackle some minutes earlier in a match that had too many questionable challenges.
Meath were unlucky to find Derry and Joe Brolly in such positive form on a day when they tended to spoil their own chances by giving away possession. Derry hadn't won a match since winning the Ulster crown seven months ago; but, as their manager Eamonn Coleman remarked: "what better place than Navan to kick-start our campaign. After that display I am looking forward to the rest of the season and especially our match with Down."
Tactically, Meath spent the day running up cul-de-sacs; some of their ploys to redress their position when playing with the strong wind in the second half, belonged to the "dont's" section of any Gaelic football manual.
The signs were ominous in the first half when, even allowing for playing into the wind, the first Meath score did not arrive until six minutes from half-time. That score was from a free by Raymond Magee and the same route provided their second and only other first half score by Ollie Murphy.
These were two of 25 first half frees awarded. Yet, Meath followers had some reason to believe that Derry's advantage at halftime 0-6 to 0-2, would be insufficient.
Derry, when faced with the wind for the second half, were not going to fall into the same trap that Meath had. Instead, the Ulstermen's gameplan for the second 30 minutes was to keep possession with short passing, and it worked most effectively.
Sean Boylan explained it simply: "They (Derry) went up a gear and we could not match them."
Are Boylan's team in for a bawling out at training this week? "No" retorted the manager "That would serve no purpose. The fellas know themselves how bad they played. We will just have to try and correct the things we did wrong today."
Brolly had five points but said "it was easy taking them with the wind." But some of Derry's most heartening work was achieved in defence and midfield. David O'Neill at full back and the entire half back line of Feargal Crossan, Johnny McBride and Gary Coleman generally stamped out the Meath attack.
Rory Boylan responded to the call most effectively when drafted into midfield at the 11th hour in a reshuffle that saw Johnny McBride move to centre back in place of the injured Emmet McKeever. Team captain Anthony Tohill performed cleverly in his new role on the right wing, even though he tended to pop up in all of the attacking positions and in midfield too.
Enda Muldoon also played a hugely important role for Derry. The Ulster squad's ability to replace established players with good quality squad players augurs well for morale over the coming months.
DERRY: E McCloskey; S Donnelly, D O'Neill, S M Lockhart; F Crossan, J McBride, G Coleman; R Boylan, E Muldoon; A Tohill (0-1, free), D Dougan (0-1), D Heaney (0-2); J Brolly (0- 5, 1 free), D Bateson (0-2), J Cassidy.
MEATH: C Sullivan; M O'Reilly, D Fay, D Curtis; H Traynor, G Geraghty, P Reynolds; N Nestor (0-2), N Crawford; N Kearney, R Kealy, J Devine; R Magee (0-1 free), E Kelly, O Murphy (0-2 frees). Subs - D Hunt for Kearney and G McGovern for Devine (both 50 mins).
Referee: E Neary (Sligo).
