It is never a pleasant experience to be beaten in any final, but the Meath Vocational Schools side can take huge consolation from their epic journey to the All-Ireland SFC decider. A trip that saw them collect provincial silverware on the way. Kit Henry's charges were looking to bridge a 50 year gap since last landing similar honours but they faced a formidable obstacle at the final fence, with competition specialists Tyrone standing in their way, looking to claim the title for the second time in three years. Meath's passage to the decider was somewhat of a rollercoaster ride for all involved as they needed last gasp goals at the penultimate stage of both their Leinster and All-Ireland campaigns to see off Offaly and Galway respectively. But their luck ran out when it they needed it most as the Red Hand County brought an end to their winning run at Clones in late April, with the 1-12 to 0-9 victory flattering the students from north of the border. Having guided his troops to an All-Ireland decider, Cortown native Henry heaped praise on all the players that played a part in making his reign at the helm such a success and gave special mention to the immense effort which they donated to the cause. ''To reach and All-Ireland final was a great achievement for everybody but especially for the thirty or so lads that were involved. It was them who put in all the effort and they should be credited as they put in a huge amount of work throughout the year,'' Henry said. Despite travelling to the Monaghan venue as underdogs, Meath put it up to their more esteemed opponents for the majority of the tie and it was only in the final quarter that Tyrone finally asserted and added a look of comfort to the scoreline. But it was far from comfortable for Tyrone and it was only the wayward shooting of Henry's men that allowed them to keep in touch before they punished Meath for not converting their chances with a flurry of late scores. The large crowd in Clones would have been anticipating a gripping climax to the action as the sides were deadlocked, 1-5 to 0-8, entering the final quarter but Meath only managed to tag on a single point to that tally while Tyrone added a further seven points to continue their domination of the competition. Tyrone began in promising fashion and a Kyle Coney goal after just five minutes handed them a 1-1 to 0-1 lead but Meath didn't let that early setback knock them off their stride and points from Shane Farrelly (two), John Broderick and Gary Farrelly had them back on level terms after 18 minutes. With the momentum swaying in Meath's favour at that stage, they looked capable of building up a healthy half-time advantage but some awful shooting meant that they were only on level terms at the change of ends with Shane Farrelly the only other player to raise a white flag as the board read 0-5 to 1-2 at the interval. Henry's half-time 'chat' seemed to be having the desired effect as Eoin Reilly pointed shortly after the resumption and points from Farrelly and Broderick swiftly followed to keep Meath in the box seat. Then in the 43rd minute Reilly had a gilt-edged opportunity to give his side some breathing space when he latched onto a loose ball but his piledriver rebounded off the crossbar and Tyrone were let off the hook. That close shave seemed to effect the side in green and gold and they were unable to muster any further assaults on the Tyrone goal while their counterparts finished strongly with Martin Rodgers, Niall Fox and Barry McGarvey all finding their range late on to seal victory for their side. Reflecting on his side's defeat in the decider, manager Henry was of that opinion that the chances his side missed in the opening period ultimately proved their downfall. ''We missed an awful lot of really scorable chances, especially in the first half and those misses really came back to bite us in the second half as Tyrone finished much stronger than we did and they seemed to win every breaking ball in the latter stages of the game,'' Henry said. ''The goal was a real sucker punch as it came so early on and we hadn't really settled but we missed a couple of chances after that, both from frees and from play, which would have cancelled out that effort, but these things happen,'' he added. While Meath may have been out of luck in the decider, they needed more than a trifle of good fortune to come out on top in their All-Ireland semi-final outing with Galway at Pearse Park, Longford, as a late goal from substitute Michael Convey sealed a smash and grab raid for the Royal County side who prevailed on a 2-11 to 2-10 scoreline. With the sixty minutes already elaspsed Meath found themselves trailing 1-11 to 2-10 but good approach play from Robert Wall and Graham Patterson sent Convey through on goal and the late arrival kept his composure to find the net and send Meath marching on to the decider. Despite the concession of two first half goals, Meath managed to establish a 1-8 to 2-2 interval lead courtesy of a well-taken goal from full-forward Daniel Givney and some excellent point taking from Andrew Tormey, Eoin Reilly and Gary Farrelly. After raising two whites flags shortly after the restart, Meath look as though they might run away with the spoils but Galway succeeded in negating their attacking threat and a failure to score for over twenty minutes enabled the Tribesmen to edge into a winning position. But this Meath team showed that they were full of character and they displayed traits synonymous with the green and gold jersey with their never-say-die attitude rewarded with Convey's late strike. Despite needing Convey's late goal to emerge victorious, Meath were arguably the better side and there were a number of notable individual performances with corner-back Stephen O'Brien and wing-backs Barry Curran and Thomas Johnson snuffing out numerous Galway attacks while also providing the launch pad for several attacks. ''After doing well in Leinster I suppose it was hard to maintain our consistency against Galway. I was confident that we would finish strongly as we had been training hard but we did need that little bit of luck at the end, '' Henry stated. Meath entered into the real race for All-Ireland honours by accounting for neighbours Louth in the Leinster final at Dowdallshill, Dundalk in February where they turned in their most impressive display of the campaign in demolishing the Wee County, 1-18 to 0-4. Although Meath's cause was greatly aided by Louth's indiscipline which led to three dismissals on their side, Henry's charges were ruthless in dismantling their opponents and even if they had kept their full quota on the pitch for the duration of the tie, one wonders whether it would have made any difference. The game as a contest was as good as over at the break as Meath had built up a 0-9 to 0-2 advantage by that stage with Alan Nestor and Gary and Shane Farrelly in fine form in front of goal. The second half followed a similar trend with Shane Farrelly and Ciaran Ellis pointing before Nestor clinically dispatched a penalty to the net after Louth 'keeper Paul Gallagher brought down Ellis. Although it was little more than target practice for Meath in the closing stages, they sent over some excellent scores with Shane Farrelly increasing his personal tally to eight points at the final whistle while Gavin Doyle and Gary Farrelly also chipped in with points to add a sheen of gloss onto the scoreline. ''It was great to win a Leinster title. We did our homework on Louth and we knew what we were facing against them. We were much more cohesive than in the previous outing and the co-ordination with the ball work was very good. Our passing was very good and we took some great scores and that is very pleasing, '' Henry remarked. After receiving a walkover from Carlow in the opening round of the competition, Meath were pitted against Offaly in the Leinster semi-final and Henry's men needed to call on all their resolution to overhaul a persistent challenge from the midlanders. Trailing by four points, 1-6 to 2-7, with a little over three minutes remaining, Dara Molloy and Michael Convey popped up to rescue the situation for Meath by netting twice to hand their side a fortuitous 3-6 to 2-7 victory at Longwood in February. While there is no doubting that Henry's charges were lucky to escape from a couple of battles unscathed, a Leinster title was just rewards for a side that showed admirable battling qualities and although an All-Ireland title eluded them, there efforts throughout the campaign bodes well for future progression in the grade. ''We had a very well-balanced side that worked well together as a team. They all knew each other beforehand through the schools and a lot of them played underage football with Meath so that was a real bonus when we began,'' Henry concluded. The Meath Vocational Schools side that were pipped to All-Ireland VS SFC honours by Tyrone in April was as follows: P. Coakley; S. O'Brien, P. Kelly, F. Delaney; T. Johnson, Gerald Farrelly, B. Curran; E. Reilly (0-1), G. Patterson; E. Smyth, A. Tormey, Gary Farrelly (0-1); S. Farrelly (0-4), D. Givney, J. Broderick (0-2). Subs - M. Conway for Delaney, R. Geraghty for Kelly, C. Ellis (0-1) for Gary Farrelly, T. Lynch for Johnson. Tweet

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