NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE/News: If there is one annually recurring theme to the early rounds of the National Football League, then it has to be the talk of worrying times for Meath. No county has been as consistently slow out of the blocks after the winter, or as quick to spurn tales of an imminent backlash come the summer.

These past few weeks have been no different. After a lethargic display against Laois, and worse against Cavan, Meath now start Sunday's game at home to Kildare knowing that only a win will keep alive any sort of interest in the campaign.

But there are deeper questions lurking this season. Manager Seán Boylan is facing one of his biggest rebuilding tasks since taking over in 1982, and so far the younger players haven't shown sparkling form. Graham Geraghty appears set to remain in retirement, and the cracks in some other key areas of the team are all too obvious.

Goalkeeper Cormac Sullivan admits that the pressure for a win in Navan on Sunday has definitely registered with the team, although he doesn't accept the theory that Boylan simply doesn't have the players.

"We know there is that bit more pressure on us to win now," he says. "But I know as well that we started off like everyone else, looking forward to the league and hoping for a good campaign. And we definitely didn't start out thinking of losing any games.

"Obviously it's very important now that we do get a win. But we're certainly not about to panic either. We are all confident that we can turn it around, and as far as we're concerned we have the players to do it.

"Everyone knows we have to totally knuckle down now, and just try to grind out a result. So even if we win by a point on Sunday then we'll be well satisfied."

Part of Sullivan's positive thinking is based on previous experiences. Three years ago Meath endured won of their worst ever starts to the league, but ended up qualifying for the semi-finals on scoring difference, where they beat Kerry, and then lost to Derry in the final.

Yet the problem of getting the younger players to perform at a higher level hasn't been easy to solve. "It's not an easy thing to do," says Sullivan, "trying to blood so many new players. You have to play them in competitive games to get a true feeling of what they're capable of, but it's not easy in those situations either to grind out a result. So I think you do get a false reality of where you really stand."

Even the most experienced of players have been tried out in different roles in an effort to find a winning formula. Captain Darren Fay started at centre back against Laois but returned to his familiar full back spot against Cavan. Neither game proved to be his most enjoyable of afternoons.

"The thing about Darren is that he is such a quality footballer that you always want to use him further out the field," explains Sullivan. "Of course it is more familiar to see him at full back, but maybe he does have more to offer elsewhere. The problem then is what you do with the full back position."

Against Cavan the entire team performance was below par, and Sullivan doesn't have any excuses.

"Well I don't know where to start. A mixture of things went wrong for us on the day, and already we've been working on some of those things. Overall it was terrible performance in that none of us played well, and we let Cavan run all over us. But I know the opinion of the team afterwards was that we weren't going to let that happen again."

One area that is sure to improve in the Kildare game is the Meath forward line, with Trevor Giles now back in action after an extended winter break. Giles trained with the team on Tuesday night, and is expected to play some role in Sunday's game. But Kildare, who fell narrowly to Cavan and then edged past Sligo, are sure to start with more confidence - reflected in the unchanged team named by manager Padraic Nolan.

"They seem to be going well enough," admits Sullivan. "They looked very good in the O'Byrne Cup, and managed to beat Sligo away last week as well which obviously was a good result. But there aren't that many teams that are unbeaten either so if we do get a couple of wins behind us then we're right back in it."

KILDARE (SF v Meath): E Murphy; B Lacey, D Hendy, A McLoughlin; E Callaghan, G Ryan, A Rainbow; D Earley, A McHugh; K Ennis, J Doyle, R Sweeney; T Rossiter, D McCormack, T Fennin.