Mick O'Dowd has rejected the notion that Meath came to Croke Park yesterday just to keep the score down against Dublin.

The Royals had an ultra-defensive game plan in place, but still lost by 10 points to a Dublin team who rarely got out of second gear.

"I genuinely mean that they didn't come up for damage limitation as some people were thinking. And I know there'll probably be some criticism that 'why didn't we have a go', but we did have a go," the Meath manager insisted.

"We just weren't able to... we just didn't finish our chances when we got them. You didn't want to come here and be conceding early goals to Dublin. That was the real plus at half-time, ot be just 11-8 down. We'll just have to review our second half and see why we only scored three points. That's the challenge really.

"There's no excuses being made here but, again, we're bringing on players that are making their debut for Meath. They're bringing on seasoned players that have won All-Irelands and that's the gap we have won All-Irelands and that's the gap we just have to keep working hard on. It's not nice.

"I'm as passionate a Meath man as anyone else that's ever played with the county or that's involved. Those players have given so much to get really ready to compete at this level, but that shows they've more work to do." 

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