Another grim wake for the league. In Clones on Saturday evening, Derry beat Meath in a Church and General National League final replay that was little more distinguished than last year's slumber down in Cork. Twelve thousand hardy souls watched two of the game's heavyweights grind their way through a second half that yielded just four scores.

What began as an optimistic, flowing game gradually deteriorated into a gnarled and often ugly pageant, a reminder that when Gaelic football is bad, it is very, very bad.

Not that Derry cared. They maintained their unbeaten league record and extended the feel-good factor created after their championship dismissal of Cavan last week. Like all wise managers, Eamonn Coleman beamed, said he was pleased, and then quickly sought to assure us that it didn't really matter that much.

"We can't get carried away with this. How many teams have won a National League and then got beaten in the first round of the Ulster championship? It was always about the Ulster championship, that's what we trained for. It we get beaten by Down or Antrim, no one will remember Clones on June 20th."

Well, not quite nobody. It's a date that will probably stay with Meath All Star Mark O'Reilly for quite some time. After spending his evening quietly instructing young Paddy Bradley on the rudiments of big-time football, O'Reilly bravely threw himself at a shot attempt late in the game and was rewarded with a suspected broken arm. Yesterday, it emerged after an X-ray that O'Reilly's arm is not in fact broken, but he still faces a battle to be fully fit for their first championship outing against Offaly.

On Saturday, the mood in the dressingroom was less disappointment than vague distraction, a sense that of late their All-Ireland preparations has gone awry.

Faced with the absence of Graham Geraghty, Sean Boylan must now come to terms with the possible loss of the Summerhill defender. When it was put to the manager that the past week had not been the kindest to him, he was, as ever, stoical.

"Well, it's called life, you know what I mean? I'm fairly used to that. You never like to lose your players and always want to have your best out there, but every player out there tried shocking hard and if victory wasn't there today, well, it could be the next day."

Whereas Meath had nothing to prove or gain from this match, it represented another significant step forward for Derry, who yet again appear to be on the cusp of great things. They underlined several key attributes over the course of Saturday's game.

Anthony Tohill was again magnificent. Though it has to be allowed that Meath's John McDermott is still brushing away the winter cobwebs, the general play of the Derry midfielder was one of the few redeeming features of the game.

He rose for some marvellous fetches, landed two 50-metre frees during the early, pretty period and again thundered through the heart of Meath's defence to fire another goal. That 12th-minute move was easily the highlight of the game. Enda Muldoon, who won a significant amount of ball in front of Darren Fay, roved deep and collected a pass. He flicked a pass out to Bradley, who, spying Tohill steaming down the centre, whipped a wonderfully precise cross field ball. Tohill grabbed it, shouldered free and fired low past Cormac Sullivan. That left the scores at 1-4 to 0-3 and with the rain holding off, the occasion was warming nicely. Steadily, though, both defences exerted a stranglehold on the game and the second half was littered with wides from both teams.

Ollie Murphy was full of running and purpose up front, but was reined in somewhat after Sean Martin Lockhart kept his company from the 26th minute. Trevor Giles kept Meath well in the game with a series of frees, but his influence on open play was affected by the close attentions of Kieran McKeever, who was keen to smother the Meath playmaker every time he took possession.

Giles did break loose to combine with Ronan Fitzsimons and Murphy for a fine score on 33 minutes and threatened again in the 49th minute. Anthony Moyles, distributing cleverly from defence, freed Evan Kelly, who flicked a nice pass for Giles close to the Derry goal. He sought for a gap but his shot was blocked down by Lockhart.

"Yeah, I had a shot, I should have passed to Ollie and he would have put it away. So that was my mistake," he said later. In the second half Meath never trailed by more than three points, but so appalling was the shooting in that period that it was a significant gap. Barry Callaghan came in and curled a point with 20 minutes to go which left the scores at 1-7 to 0-8. Tommy Dowd made a popular entrance, but his impact was slight. It was, quite simply, no day for forwards.

Fay gradually bottled up Muldoon and without the rangy Ballinderry man's influence, Derry's attack began to look a little stilted. There is a lingering worry that when the days get hotter, they might suffer for scores.

After Callaghan's point, there were no more scores until the 62nd minute, when Johny McBride found his range to leave it at 1-8 to 0-8. Dowd won a free in the next sequence which Giles duly converted, but there was no fireworks for the finale. "We were very tired in the second half but I thought our defence was excellent," reasoned Coleman. But in the grand scheme of things, he felt that little had changed. "Meath are still favourites for the All-Ireland. Sean will sit down and look at it and he will come up with something."

However, both teams face some tricky passages if they are to negotiate another meeting which each other later in the summer. Meath left Clones bruised if unbowed and look like a tired squad. Maybe their improbable progression to the league playoffs was not such a good thing in retrospect. Derry's win copperfastens the view that they will be emerge from the north this year.

Derry: M Conlon; K McKeever, SM Lockhart, D O'Neill; G Coleman, H Downey, P McFlynn; A Tohill (1-3, free, 45), D Heaney; N McOscair (0-1), D Dougan (0-1), R Rocks; P Bradley (0-1, free), E Muldoon (0-1), J McBride (0-1). Subs: C Gilligan for R Rocks (42 mins), G McGonagle for C Gilligan (58 mins), S McLarnon for P Bradley (61 mins).

Meath: C Sullivan, M O'Reilly, D Fay, C Murphy; N Nestor, A Moyles, R Kealy; N Crawford, J McDermott; E Kelly, R Fitzsimons, T Giles (0-6, 5 frees), O Murphy (0-2), J Devine, D Curtis. Subs: B Callaghan (0-1) for J Devine (46 mins), T Dowd for D Curtis (56 mins), S Dillon for E Kelly (66 mins).

Referee: P Russell (Tipperary).