Sean Boylan has used the same words before, but rarely with the same degree of sincerity. "We had to dig deep, so deep," said the Meath manager, "and I want to say it loud and clear, it is grand to be there, to be in the Leinster final."

For a long time it looked as if Meath's next date in Croke Park would actually be a replay with yesterday's rivals Louth. Some second-half sorcery from Tommy Dowd - "he was fantastic, wasn't he?" inquired Boylan, knowing the answer - enabled them to avoid such an event, although much of the after-match talk centred on the point that possibly wasn't that the referee insisted probably was.

Boylan's eyes hold all the innocence of a schoolboy who is asked a question he doesn't really want to answer.

"I can't truly say myself," says the politician in Boylan, "but the two selectors beside me were going mad and shouting that it was a point."

The point in question concerned Graham Geraghty's kick into the Hill 16 end in the 45th minute. The umpire immediately signalled wide, but the referee - who was in close proximity to Geraghty - was equally quick in over-ruling the decision and awarding the point.

In the Louth dressing-room, manager Paddy Clarke was being just as diplomatic, if still leaving a doubt hanging in the air about the decision to overturn the umpire. "I was 100 yards away, but it certainly curled at the end. You'd certainly think the umpire standing underneath it would have the best view of whether it went over or not. But that's the break that either goes with you or goes against you, and you earn your breaks."

Still, Clarke was insistent that Louth's day would come sometime. "I felt Meath's big-time experience probably pulled them through. They've been through the mill so often but I'm proud of our lads . . . they spilt every last drop of blood and we're all woefully disappointed. "We put nine months into this, just blood and sweat and tears and to lose by so little hurts so much."

However, the Louth manager was keen to praise the way that Meath came back at them in the second half. "It was like a tidal wave that just keeps coming at you, and Dowd and the rest of them were just lethal," he said. "I thought if Meath were going to lose this year, then it would be today. I told the lads that if Meath were going to peak for us, then they'd be burned out by the time of the Leinster final and I just sensed that this could be our day. Unfortunately, we just lost out."

Back to Boylan, the greatest manager of the modern era. "It was a fantastic game, and I knew that Louth would put it up to us . . . we went out to lead from the front, but they didn't let us do that and so we had to dig really deep and found it hard to earn our scores. What won it for us was the team work when we were under pressure."