There was never a better time for Seán Boylan to state the undeniable about the character of the Meath footballer.
It was just after 8.30 in a noisy corridor under the Páirc Tailteann stand in Navan when the Meath manager declared, "the important thing for us is that the integrity of spirit in the team is still alive and well".
Only Meath could have snatched victory from the rapidly closing jaws of defeat in such a manner. Boylan's men were four points in arrears in the final minute of the 70.
Their response was two stunning goals - the first by second-half substitute Richie Kealy, who had also scored Meath's first six minutes after replacing Donal Curtis, and the second by Graham Geraghty in the final minute of injury-time.
Geraghty's match-clincher owed much to the dashing talent of Ollie Murphy and his trade-mark solo along the line before deftly parting to the full forward with the scoring pass.
Pure Meath magic without mirrors or smoke."I hadn't felt the same about any Meath recovery since the fourth match against Dublin in the 1991 marathon," said Boylan.
Louth manager Paddy Carr was annoyed with the amount of injury-time played.
"We were told that three minutes would be played," he said. "It went to five on my watch. I can't say anymore than that. We are no longer satisfied with moral victories. I fully expected to win this one.
"It was a case of Meath showing that a match is not over until it is over. Almost until the last ball was kicked, we had control of the game."
The Louth manager said: "Meath will go a long way in the championship, maybe all the way."
Meath's scoring-rate did not match up to their possession-rate in the first half and Evan Kelly having to forage deep into his own half of the field reflected the poor supply to the Meath attack.
The issue was on a knife-edge at the interval, with the sides on level terms at 0-6 apiece.
The second half opened in blistering fashion, full of exciting incidents.
In less than 20 seconds, Ollie McDonnell sent the Meath cover reeling with a sparking goal.
Barry Clarke was the provider of the astute lob for McDonnell to gather and blast home to the net from close range.
When play switched to the other end, Meath could not take advantage of a similar situation, Giles missed the easiest of frees and Geraghty was similarly off target.
Finally, Meath's hard work began to pay off with Geraghty and Ollie Murphy combining well to give Kealy his first goal chance which he took with great conviction.
Cormack Sullivan had to be heroic under high balls on a number of occasions as the Louth attack menacingly applied the pressure.
Mark Stanfield, from a free, restored the lead for Louth only for Hank Traynor to move up and take a great point.
The alarm bells sounded loudest for Meath in the 57th minute when Christy Grimes found JP Rooney for a great goal, making it 2-7 to 1-7. Giles' response was to hit the near post with another simple free from 20 yards.
Louth grabbed their four-point advantage in style, Stanfeld slotting a 40-yard line ball with three minutes of the 70 remaining.
Giles somewhat redeemed himself by starting the move that led to Kealy's second goal on 70 minutes, Crawford having provided the scoring pass.
Despite contributing very little early on, Geraghty's goal, inspired by Murphy, in the final minute of injury-time duly put him on a pedestal. The Seneschalstown man earlier in the day was best man at a friend's wedding and was first out of the dressing-rooms to rejoin the wedding party in Wexford.
"I was thrilled to see our players relentlessly carry the ball forward despite everything going wrong for us," Boylan said afterwards. "We were forced into error by an excellent Louth team that had prepared well."
HOW THEY LINED-UP
MEATH: 1 C Sullivan; 2 M O'Reilly, 3 D Fay, 4 C Murphy; 5 P Shankey, 6 H Traynor, 7 P Reynolds; 8 N Crawford, 9 J Cullinane; 10 E Kelly, 11 T Giles, 12 N Nester; 18 R Magee, 14 G Geraghty, 15 D Curtis. Subs: R Kealy for Curtis, O Murphy for Magee (both 42 mins).
LOUTH: 1 S Reynolds; 2 A Page, 3 A Hoey, 4 D Brennan; 5 S Gerard, 6 M Farrelly, 7 J Neary; 8 K Reilly, 9 S O'Hanlon; 10 D Reilly, 11 C Grimes, 12 B Clarke; 13 O McDonnell, 14 M Stanfield, 15 J P Rooney. Subs: N McDonnell for Clarke (61).
YELLOW CARDS
Meath: G Geraghty. Louth: S O'Hanlon, J Neary, J P Rooney.
Referee: B Gorman (Armagh).
